Score: Clarke 1, Goldstein banned from the sport forevermore


Civilized Celts would send skillful bards to sing satires in great competitions. I applaud the idea of returning to such a literate tradition, but really…a skilled writer who knows something of meter and meaning vs. a clumsy, chattering hack who strings words together in lumpy, clattering arrhythmia? If this were a boxing match, it’d be like pitting Mohammed Ali in his prime against Steve Buscemi with a hangover. It’s Bambi sans charm vs. Godzilla with a keyboard. It’s the Philadelphia Philharmonic playing over a gurgling drainpipe. Who put together this embarrassing mismatch?

Comments

  1. says

    Looks like you hurt Jeff’s feelings, PZ: He flinched so hard that he’s blaming Coleridge for the bulk of the arrhythmia.

    Because — as we all know — iambic pentameter isn’t a rhythm.

  2. says

    How strange that my criticism would sting so much. I don’t think I have a reputation as a deep, insightful judge of poetry on the internets.

    Maybe he confused me with the Phawrongulans.

  3. says

    Ah, and of course he has now re-re-edited his post’s update to remove his blaming Coleridge. (Editions and redactions which a mouse-click will reverse.)

  4. Carpbasman says

    Ah, and of course he has now re-re-edited his post’s update to remove his blaming Coleridge. (Editions and redactions which a mouse-click will reverse.)

    Posted by: Chris Clarke | July 1, 2006 03:35 PM

    To bad that no one screen capped that, ’cause now he’s changed the meter for comedic effect

    This seems to be a pattern with Jeffry. When called out about writing in his class notes that The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, it was the people calling him out who were fools because in reality it was a big inside joke between him and his class. I think that he even claimed to have gotten the Heart of Darkness reference he wiffed.

    There’s always a reason for things that make him foolish.

  5. melior says

    If it is just not pathetic enough to attempt to appear “tough” by bashing feminists (in 2006!), it is laughably so to attempt it in poorly metered verse.

    What next for low-brow hilarity with a bowtie on… Andrew Dice Clay with symphonic accompaniment?