Seamus Heaney

Why The Troll’s Been Bashing Blake Butler

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Is the comments thread of a post eulogizing Seamus Heaney the place to be snarky and to attack Blake Butler?

Well my long-time (and still) friend Philip Hopkins thought it was:

“Oh, did Heaney die? I guess that’s cool”

and

“…I thought clarity was outré. Heaney hasn’t written a magnum 700 page spooj-laden opus on tennis and corporate sponsorship has he? Has Blake Butler’s blog lost its edge?”

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And in reply to those comments ZZZZZIPPP (who only writes in ALL CAPS) asked: “DID BLAKE BUTLER HURT YOU IN SOME WAY” ?? (Perhaps ZZZZZIPPP had also seen Phil’s comment to my post about who is the best tweeter amongst us writers:

Blake Butler is the best person at everything in the world all the time because he’s so literary. Always. Especially when he’s not.”)

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To clear the air now (ie, to stop the trolling, silly and embarrassing–and it’s happened before) and because, also, I am sure many people actually agree with his opinions, I asked Phil to flesh out his ideas, passions and grievances in an intelligent, civilized way (while I don’t agree with Phil’s strong positions I’m fine with his having them.) And, so, this, is what he sent me:

Against Blake and His Minions
by Philip Hopkins

To clarify some of my recent comments on HTMLGIANT.

Blake and Rauan have said on this site and elsewhere that they find ethical considerations trite READ MORE >

Massive People & Mean & Random / 33 Comments
September 2nd, 2013 / 2:10 pm