I always get a little creeped out when male critics, reviewing a female poets work (it seems especially rampant with younger poets) make reference to the poet's appearance in a way that I could never see female poets refer to male poets. I mean, I might say here that I think Nick Flinn is a hottie, but I wouldn't exactly work that into my formal review of his work. I was reading something I linked through to from someone else's blog-- a review of a female poet, and there near the end was the head pat-the "you're so pretty and impressionable, don't let academia ruin your work". I love the work in question, but couldn't help but dislike the tone, even if I agreed with the review overall. I guess it just struck me as innapopriate somehow and setting feminism back a few decades. The poet in question is undeniably gorgeous but I'm not sure what that has to do with the reception of her work in academia, whether or not she is taken more or less seriously.
Today I bribed myself to venture out to the store to get ordinary mundane things like cat food and spaghetti sauce with the promise of chocolate, Cadbury eggs to be specific, both a divine orange creme one and a little bag of mini-eggs. I find everything is a bartering system lately. If I clean the bathroom I can make bracelets. If I wash the dishes I can work on packaging soaps. Unpleasant tasks for pleasant ones. I am gearing up to do laundry in exchange for working on some collages. Some tasks are somewhere between pleasant and unpleasant, like assembling chapbooks and attaching clasps to jewelry the design and layout parts are fun, but the mechanical mundane repetitive work less so, even with pleasure of the finished product makes it harder to get motivated. I have alot of books to staple and trim this week so I may just have to promise myself a new leather totebag in exchange to get through them. I've been eyeing one in a store on Michigan Avenue that's in the process of going out of business. If not that, then maybe some new summer dresses. I will need them at some point hopefully despite what it looks outside today. Since it's spring break and I'll be doing the 9-5 gig this week, I plan on bribing myself out of bed and to work with the promise of caramel macchiato every single day, even though they are ridiculously frivolous and expensive..you gotta do what you gotta do...
