At last I've found my place in the arts. I can't begin to tell you how troubling it is to the creative spirit to not have one's own intellectual niche in the vast taxonomy of the arts.

And yet here it is. In one glorious flash of insight, a young connoisseur of the literary arts, Simon, has found for me my true place in the hierarchy of creators and given it, with all the grace so often lacking in those of his premature sophistication, the earthy pithiness which I so sought but, alas, could not articulate.

Do click on the main page and view Simon the savant. Isn't he just darling?

Thank you, Simon, thank you,

Russ Vaughn
The Slope-skulled Poet

link

I was thinking about blogging about this since simon linked to E*D. I was just going to ignore him but since Russ wanted to share his .02, I'll share mine:

Since Simon knows so much about Russ Vaughn's poetry, enought to label it "a wonderland of racism" I was thinking it would be nice if he could provide a single such instance of racist sentiments in Russ's writings. Moreover, I think it would be interesting to see if Simon could justify chastising Russ for his "unapologetic calls for violence" when Simon writes "Fuck the Troops (fuck off and die)" Sort of like the tea pot calling the kettle black... at least Russ is supporting the spread of democracy and freedom instead of islamo-fascist/despotic rule. Lastly, Russ's sentiments come from a lifetime of experiences - experiences which include servicing his country by taking the ultimate risk to preserve the cause of freedom. Russ's experiences have provided him with substantial capital in the marketplace of ideas. Because Simon disagrees with Russ, he labels Russ's views "anti-intellectual". This is the height of intellectual dishonesty. Rather than taking on Russ's views with counter arguments, and participating in the free exchange of ideas, Simon instead relies on ad hominem attacks and dodges the issues entirely. None of this surprises me in the least... I expect this from the left.