Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Prudence and proportion ...

... The Rules of Perspective. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Not only do many intellectuals appear to have difficulty in distinguishing between their own little psychodramas and great world events, so that leaders for whom (sometimes justifiably, sometimes for petty personal reasons) they conceive a dislike become in their minds equal to the greatest monsters in history, but they are inclined to mistake the vehemence of their denunciations for good and sufficient arguments.

This also explains why so much political poetry is so bad. And the final clause explains much of the snark one encounters on the internet.

1 comment:

  1. It also speaks to why so much criticism is so much less objective than it thinks it is. Perhaps especially in poetry, but in lit crit in general, too, probably.

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