tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7983714963510766982.post7791875394139290584..comments2022-02-27T01:56:50.178-04:00Comments on The Pnakotic Manuscripts: Charter 77 and Moral ResponsibilityJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02312740064923045194noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7983714963510766982.post-91630682781840739722008-02-19T01:13:00.000-04:002008-02-19T01:13:00.000-04:00You can post all the anonymous scathing reviews yo...You can post all the anonymous scathing reviews you want, for whatever reasons you want. But they'll never ring true like a single great review with your name on it would, and they'll never be as morally satisfying. I'm not saying people don't have (what they consider to be) valid reasons to post anonymously, and only they can make that call. I'm just saying it's cowardly to not take responsibility for your opinion. <EM>Realpolitik</EM> is a fact of life, but cowardice is cowardice, whether the coward feels it's justified or not. No one ever has to make excuses for being brave. Then again, there's a reason why "cavalier" simultaneously means "brave" and "foolish" or "rash."<BR/><BR/>Do you see what I mean, though? We can try to understand cowardice, and sympathize with people's reasons, but we can't relativize it out of existence just because people <EM>have</EM> reasons.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02312740064923045194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7983714963510766982.post-88568038786749963482008-02-18T23:57:00.000-04:002008-02-18T23:57:00.000-04:00On the other hand, as a poet who has to enter the ...On the other hand, as a poet who has to enter the insular poetry job world soon, if I post a review of somebody's book and they get pissed, they may try to make it their mission to destroy any potential career I may have.<BR/><BR/>For instance, a couple years ago I went to this reading. It was a pretty shitty reading for this new book of poems. So I said in my myspace blog that "it was probably worse than the holocaust." (I know, I know, insensitive, but it was hyperbole). Anyway, the editor of that anthology found what I had said and started telling people I knew and people I didn't know that I was antisemitic and a douchebag. So now I am hesitant to use my name on my goodreads account on the off chance that it prevents me from getting into a school, or winning a contest, or getting a job somewhere. Cowardly? Probably. But that's how poetry works I guess.DCPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01026061066008392652noreply@blogger.com