Poetic justice
WHO’S Christopher Reynolds and what’s his beef with Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg? And more to the point, why did the L.A. Times choose to put such a cynical, sarcastic piece on the cover of Sunday’s Calendar section?
Did The Times and Reynolds think it was funny to trivialize the lives and accomplishments of two great American artists and ultimately compare them to so much fertilizer? I guess Whitman and Ginsberg were just a couple of money-grubbing, shameless self-promoters.
Fortunately Reynolds’ article will soon be forgotten, whereas the works of Whitman and Ginsberg will not.
JOHN CAMPBELL
Los Angeles
*
WELL done -- a really odd and interesting piece of literary smackdown. But that guy Dana Gioia (not to mention the absurd Timothy Steele) ought to have his mouth washed out with soap for speaking so insolently about their betters.
LEWIS MACADAMS
Los Angeles
MacAdams is an author and poet who was friendly with Ginsberg.
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