Congratulations to our own Troy Jollimore for the very positive review he just got in this past Sunday’s NY Times for his book of poems Tom Thomson in Purgatory. Here are some excerpts from the review:
"Troy Jollimore writes a different kind of American poem: brash, funny, driven by the extravagance of dramatic persona rather than the rigor of the observed life. … Jollimore is a prancer, a turner of phrases. … Jollimore’s mimicry is acute, not naive, for he stresses that identity is a sweet illusion: whatever lies "deep down" in us is really a tissue of borrowed material."
Well done, Troy!
Thanks, David! Though I’m really more of a dancer than a prancer … And don’t ask me to defend the thesis that “identity is [an] illusion” — I wasn’t aware that my poems expressed any particular philosophical position on the nature of personal identity, before reading it in the Times.
Hmmm. I was thinking more mincer than prancer or dancer….
I was about to take you up on your “theory” of personal identity and the self, but I tried that once with Walt Whitman and he coldcocked me in a dark alley, so I held off.
Troy, that is really wonderful. Congratulations!
way to go! By the way, how was your philosophy talk experience?
Philosophy Talk was fabulous. Turns out Ken and John have a huge following in the Portland area (the show was taped at Powell’s Books) — they’re like rock stars up there! So the place was packed, and the audience was extremely good.
The show will be broadcst, I believe, at the end of September. I’ll post a heads-up for PEA Brains a few days in advance.
Excellent! Powell’s is pretty great too, I think. That must have been a lot of fun.