Slog - Comments on No One Hates Like a Poet Hates... http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates ... and no poet hated himself more than Philip Larkin. He's the man who wrote: They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you. In a new batch of letters acquired by the British Library, Larkin laments his pasty, oblong visage as resembling "the late Stan Laurel" and "CS Lewis on a drugs charge"—and, my favorite, "an egg sculpted in lard, with goggles on." I hate to say it, but I can see the resemblance. It just goes... Copyright 2008 Fri, 23 May 2008 11:07:02 -0800 Fri, 23 May 2008 16:15:26 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Jubilation T. Cornball Of all the poetry I read in grad school, The Whitsun Weddings packed more punch into a small volume than any other. He's amazing.

]]> Jubilation T. Cornball http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1030731 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1030731 Books Fri, 23 May 2008 11:17:52 -0800 Comment by inkweary Happy poets write boring poetry.

]]> inkweary http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1030812 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1030812 Books Fri, 23 May 2008 11:28:25 -0800 Comment by had to say it... All poets write boring poetry.

]]> had to say it... http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1030835 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1030835 Books Fri, 23 May 2008 11:31:50 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Philip Larkin's dad kept a nutcracker in the form of Adolf Hitler on the mantelpiece -- it cracked the nut when it did the "Heil" salute -- and he had a large portrait of the man in his office in Coventry City Hall, where he was Treasurer. They made him take it down after the war started. He attended more than one Nuremberg Rally in Germany. So, yeah, they fuck you up OK.

Larkin's one of my idols. His status is not diminished by the sad, racist ramblings that dribbled out of him in his late years. One of the very few post-Auden poets who goes against @3's unfortunately moistly true dictum.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1031136 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1031136 Books Fri, 23 May 2008 12:20:30 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Jesus. MOSTLY true, not moistly.

Larkin was a fantastic jazz critic too.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1031141 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1031141 Books Fri, 23 May 2008 12:22:02 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Also, I would kill for those glasses.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1031321 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1031321 Books Fri, 23 May 2008 13:09:37 -0800 Comment by Sara I would kill for a moistly true dictum.

]]> Sara http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1031337 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1031337 Books Fri, 23 May 2008 13:13:19 -0800 Comment by Catalina Vel-DuRay He bears a suspicious resembalence to Richard Deacon (aka Mel Cooley on "The Dick Van Dyke Show").

]]> Catalina Vel-DuRay http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1031710 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1031710 Books Fri, 23 May 2008 16:09:00 -0800 Comment by Irena Larkin was a creepy old man, and my first poetic dad. When he was younger he wrote schoolgirl fiction with a soft porn lesbian bent, under the pseudonym Brunette Coleman. I love that.

]]> Irena http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1031720 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/no_one_hates_like_a_poet_hates#c1031720 Books Fri, 23 May 2008 16:15:26 -0800