13 Comments

1. August 30th, 2013 / 1:04 pm Phil Hopkins—

   Heaney is great. He makes complex, profound meanings clear. 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?

2. August 30th, 2013 / 1:05 pm Phil Hopkins—

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

3. August 30th, 2013 / 1:46 pm ZZZZZIPPP—

   WHAT ARE YOU DOING

4. August 30th, 2013 / 1:46 pm ZZZZZIPPP—

   DID BLAKE BUTLER HURT YOU IN SOME WAY

5. August 30th, 2013 / 3:45 pm Rauan Klassnik—

   don’t be silly, man

6. August 30th, 2013 / 3:46 pm Rauan Klassnik—

   yes, Heaney’s great. but i’m with ZZZZZIPPP here “WHAT ARE YOU DOING” ???

7. September 1st, 2013 / 2:38 am bemightee—

   Dude you are clearly grinding an axe here or else just being a run-of-the-mill troll. Either way this isn’t really the right post for that.

8. September 1st, 2013 / 5:46 am Phil Hopkins—

   Seeing Heaney’s face here surprised me, because he was a poet of conscience, and was known internationally for that. Blake’s work and Rauan’s work (Rauan’s a friend of mine) as well as their statements online have aligned them with writing they think operates outside of ethical considerations or conscience. I know Rauan honestly admires Heaney, but Blake and Rauan misread McCarthy, Frederick Seidel, DeLillo and others AS artists who write sans wimpy considerations like conscience. Even if that’s what McCarthy or Seidel think they’re doing, their work is better and smarter than that. So for me, touting the greatness of Heaney on this site while consistently representing writing of conscience as fusty or old-guard is just stupid. It pissed me off. I need probably four or five paragraphs to lay this out more coherently. I’ll shoot Rauan a note with that in the next couple of days.

9. September 1st, 2013 / 6:39 am bemightee—

   yeah and grinding an axe on a post which i can only assume was set up by rauan to eulogize him is in bad taste. why not guest post those four or five paragraphs that are missing from your argument/beef with rauan’s and blake’s writing and come at it full assualt? at least then people would be able to properly respond.

10. September 1st, 2013 / 11:20 am Rauan Klassnik—

    thanks for posting this, man…. and, yeah, i’ve encouraged Phil to send me a developed criticism.. he is indeed a good friend of mine (he was one of my 1st friends at school in Dallas when i was 13 and just relocated from South Africa… but that being said comments like “So for me, touting the greatness of Heaney on this site while consistently representing writing of conscience as fusty or old-guard is just stupid. It pissed me off” are putting a strain on that friendship because yeah like you said he’s just coming off as a common “troll”

11. September 1st, 2013 / 2:04 pm bemightee—

    its all good man we’re not responsible for our friends’ behavior necessarily and i’m not saying he’s a bad guy just that this is not really the right post to take potshots at people’s aesthetics.

12. September 1st, 2013 / 2:58 pm Rauan Klassnik—

    I agree 1000%

13. September 2nd, 2013 / 2:11 pm Why The Troll’s Been Bashing Blake Butler | HTMLGIANT—

    […] the comments thread of a post eulogizing Seamus Heaney the place to be snarky and to attack Blake […]