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A review by buzzgirl
The Hatred of Poetry by Ben Lerner
funny
informative
fast-paced
4.0
I’m a huge reader of essay collections. That people are willing to sit down and take you through their thought process around a certain issue or question feels like the rawest form of writing - leaving, as it does, the writer as exposed as is literarily possible. It’s totally mesmerising to witness.
Some say that sportsball world cups - as in the performative display recently held in Qatar - are the great leveller; the one thing that brings the world together no matter creed, status nor colour. FIFA themselves state this as fact:
"The FIFA World Cup, through the power of football, brings people together to cross borders, unite and celebrate together. Football Unites the World..."
In contrast, I believe that it is a shared hatred of poetry, that is the "real" unifier. You could imagine the sheer delight felt upon discovering this essay by Ben Lerner which does a brilliant job of showing how poets "strategically disappoint" our assumptions about what the medium should do... claiming as it does to explore our collective rampant animosity toward the entire art form.
“Truth is like poetry. And most people fucking hate poetry.” - Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short
Some say that sportsball world cups - as in the performative display recently held in Qatar - are the great leveller; the one thing that brings the world together no matter creed, status nor colour. FIFA themselves state this as fact:
"The FIFA World Cup, through the power of football, brings people together to cross borders, unite and celebrate together. Football Unites the World..."
In contrast, I believe that it is a shared hatred of poetry, that is the "real" unifier. You could imagine the sheer delight felt upon discovering this essay by Ben Lerner which does a brilliant job of showing how poets "strategically disappoint" our assumptions about what the medium should do... claiming as it does to explore our collective rampant animosity toward the entire art form.
“Truth is like poetry. And most people fucking hate poetry.” - Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short