"I am an idealistic, naive, passionate, truth-seeking, spiritually motivated artist, unschooled in the science of law and finance." --Wesley Snipes

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Should all blurbs be positive?

I don't think so. I think a blurb should pique one's interest in a book. Or offer a perspective that differs from the usual fluff that hails the poet as the next coming of Koch or Christ or whoever-you-think-is-the-big-shit.

This is why I was somewhat delighted (no, not insulted--I value candor--though I wish he'd say how he really feels) by Professor Mayhew's non-review of my little by-now-forgotten "book" on his superior blog:



*Anthony Robinson. Brief Weather & I Guess a Sort of Vision. 2006.

I was supposed to write a blurb for this book at one point, but the first line is "i don't need your praise! i have self-loathing to work on!" So I felt it didn't really need my praise. Many of the poems take place during the AWP convention in Austin a few years back, at which I was also in attendance.

The book still doesn't need my praise.


Thank you sir.

4 comments:

Jonathan said...

Not needing praise is a praiseworthy quality, a kind of self-sufficiency. To me the book was saying "I don't care what you think." Hence, non-praisable. The non-positive blurb would be a novel strategy that might just work, whether just a lukewarm, unenthusiastic endorsement, or an outright pan.

Steven D. Schroeder said...

Y'all may like some of my blurbs, then.

Steven D. Schroeder said...

By "my blurbs" I mean the blurbs from others on my first book. I've never been asked to supply a blurb.

Jacob Russell said...

Praise is mostly embarrassing--unless it comes from someone you love and trust.

Best praise I can imagine: "I read your book. I finished it. I read it again--two more times. When is your next one coming out?"

So tell me about Joe Massey ranting and raving? We talking bout the same guy?