I must link to this brilliant Whiskey Fire post on poetry and demagoguery. I love Thers and Molly Ivors and this piece reminds me of what is so truly, truly, important about a liberal arts education: its a specific against all kinds of abuses. Even those that produce hair on your mental palms, or brief notes over at NRO. Here's Thers on a clearly fictional character named "Mary Grabar" (how improbable is that?) who is written about over at NRO as a kind of performance art, a right wing chocolate smearer who doesn't use chocolate but rather plasters her imaginary self with cut up bits of the great western tradition all to prove the point that without poetry democracy will be lost.
Like all Townhall columnists, Mary Grabar has a shtick. Her shtick is that the Great Tradition of English Literature demands that we repeal the capital gains tax, build a giant iron wall smack bang down the middle of the Rio Grande, and nuke Tehran by Tuesday lunchtime. So, John Donne, properly read, is all about how Nancy Pelosi is a nerd: hence the famous line, Dork be not proud.
Read the whole thing here.
aimai
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