tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post7553254039425322910..comments2024-03-27T06:25:29.002-05:00Comments on Anecdotal Evidence: 'This Work of Almost Despair'Patrick Kurphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08436175583386298032noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-17472012763487802422022-01-08T13:01:36.880-06:002022-01-08T13:01:36.880-06:00The best thing I ever read about Berryman and alco...The best thing I ever read about Berryman and alcohol was an essay, I forget by whom, in APR a few years after the death. I've tried without success to find it. The author's account of the use of booze and drugs (by creative writers generally, not just B.), in a hunger for changed perception, was given in uncommonly sane and level terms, avoiding both extremes of intolerance and indulgence.Baceserashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13118011951889402369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-16231989390208225182022-01-07T19:47:48.157-06:002022-01-07T19:47:48.157-06:00I remember Chesterton somewhere asserting that the...I remember Chesterton somewhere asserting that the greatest artists are the sanest, least self-destructive ones. (I think Shakespeare and Robert Browning were examples.)<br /><br />Run that up the flagpole these days and see if anyone salutes.Thomas Parkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01587426021276029142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-54008515301482794912022-01-07T10:10:56.497-06:002022-01-07T10:10:56.497-06:00I discovered Berryman at approximately the same ag...I discovered Berryman at approximately the same age and still like him very much. It may be my prejudice, but I enjoy the capital C catholic sensibility here and there throughout his work. And I've read the Meredith elegy -- is there a sideswipe at Ginsberg in the second line you quote? And if so, is it to praise Berryman for not going too far, or criticize him for sometimes leaning that way? And I find his Miss Bradstreet stuff tedious (and her stuff too).Edward Bauerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14234329254784727525noreply@blogger.com