Even the Mail is at it now.
It’s a sad and sordid story. And perhaps, if Beatrice and Edoardo had known the scandalous truth that lay behind the poem — not to mention the vile anti-Semitism that flowed alongside it — they might have chosen another piece of verse for their otherwise glorious wedding day.
The piece is an examination of E E Cummings and some of his more sordid obsessions. But so what? So what if he was a racist, it doesn’t detract from his poetry and makes no difference to the decision to use it at a wedding. We should be able to judge art independently of our feelings about the creator.
One of the usual readings at a wedding is a verse from Shakespeare, but these days he would be regarded as an antisemite. Indeed, his cancellation is long overdue…
Not ‘Poet in not actually a very nice person’ shocker? I like Ezra Pound’s Pisan Cantos, but he was still a traitor, a miserable man and an absolute fuck. Jesus, it’s a well worn argument I’m sure, but if we judged the arts but the likeability and nobility of those that were its creators, the galleries, libraries, cinemas and record stores would be near empty.
There’s a piece of artwork on the front of the BBC building by Eric Gill. I don’t know if its still the case, but when I worked for them, the preferred typeface used by Network Rail was Gill Sans.
What about Betjeman, is he already a deplorable too?
What bollox. The self-professed “journalists” adopt the childish approach of judging one hundred year old mores through the sociological lenses of 2020’s woke mentality. Pathetic doesn’t do them justice and the poem’s not up to much, either.
I admire the German Autobahn’s, but that doesn’t mean that I admire the government that originally built them. History is full of good people who occasionally did bad things and bad people who occasionally did good things. It is both dangerous and pointless to set off on a purity spiral because there are very few if any individuals who for the Woken SS are truly pure.
Didn’t the founder of the Daily Mail admire and support Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party? Before any “journalist” from that paper criticises anyone else, they should publicly crawl down Fleet Street dressed in sackcloth and ashes, shouting “I am ashamed of my employer’s history and beg forgiveness.”.
Alternatively, they should just shut the f*ck up.
I’ll be content with the latter.
Is it safe for me to come out and admit that I quite like Rolf Harris’ paintings?
Actually, they were pretty good.