...more than once. Maybe several times. First there was that disappointing guy in Symbolic Logic, who talked like Kierkegaard but acted like Nietzsche. (All I can say in my defense was that I was nineteen at the time.) Then there was the poet/barista/political activist who referred to himself in the third person in his writing, a la To A Common Prostitute. (Nineteen was a really tough age.)
What do these guys have in common with a great poetic voice of our developing nation? Well, I harbor a lingering suspicion that Walt Whitman was, in fact, very much one of THOSE guys; the ones who suck you in with earthy intelligence and honest creativity, then gradually let you down with an incredibly narrow egotism and self-promotional streak. For this reason I find it hard to read a lot of his poetry without seeing it as America (As Viewed Through The Lens Of Walt Whitman).
I don't know. I guess all poetry is filtered through the perceptions of the poet. And I actually really enjoy most of Walt Whitman's poetry in both form and content. Honest. I really love I Sing The Body Electric, When I Heard The Learn'd Astronomer and To A Stranger. There are some things he writes that really resonate with me. I just wonder sometimes if his portrayals reflect more about his own interior world than any deep, universal observations of human nature.
Plus, just like Guy #1 and his philosophy...or Guy#2 and his poetry...every time I read Whitman's writing, I can't help thinking about what a jerk he was.
And in other news...
...someday I hope to be famous enough that my listless secretarial notations will be scrutinized by a rabid team of superfluous academics:
"Walt Whitman: The poet as federal worker" (Washington Post)
"You can clearly interpret from Ms. Clemens' comma splices and haphazard spelling, as well as her iconic 'hanged woman in business suit' figures penciled in the margins, that she was disdainful of the aforementioned 'multiple memo' process; perhaps a subtle commentary on the redundancy and mass production of the standard capitalist model? Additionally, several pages of the financial committee minutes from 2008-2009 have the phrase 'blah blah blah' scattered throughout, which is obviously a very dry Marxist critique of free market economies."
Maybe one day we will have entire think-tanks dedicated to analyzing Toni Morrison's text messages or Jonathan Franzen's grocery lists.
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