Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

The magic of words

Clive James reviews Camile Paglia’s new new book which anthologizes 43 short works in verse. The review is long, but worth a read because it is about poetry (and Paglia). James: "This book is the latest shot in her campaign to save culture from theory." This is her attempt to get people (and students) to like poetry. James: "My own prescription for making poetry popular in the schools would be to ban it -- with possession treated as a serious misdemeanor, and dealing as a felony -- but failing that, a book like this is probably the next best thing." James reminds us of something Paglia said a few years back in reflecting how students know nothing except images and are thus cut off from the "mothership of culture." Paglia: "The only antidote to the magic of images is the magic of words." Although, Longfellow’s "Endymion" is not mentioned, read it here.

UPDATE: John Derbyshire thinks the Paglia volume is simply awful, a glimpse of Hell, maybe even a spoof.

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