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Get Breaking News on your cellHow not to enjoy Robert Pinsky
5:46 PM Mon, Feb 25, 2008 | Permalink
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February 2008
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I mentioned last week that Robert Pinsky was coming to town, and was hoping to link to some of his just-discontinued Poet's Choice columns in The Washington Post. You can click on that link and find an entertaining poetry selection ("Country-Western Singer" by Alan Shapiro,) and also an example of an absolutely miserable reading experience. Why? It's not Mr. Shapiro's fault, or Mr. Pinsky's. It's because to finish the poem, you have to click four times. The words are surrounded by ads to help you finish your MBA and find a new job; links that implore you to leave a comment; links to other Poet's Choice columns; more links to marginally related stories; and all the rest of the usual visual clutter that passes for standard design on this thing they call the In-tor-net. Compare that with the experience of simple words on a clean, white piece of paper. I know which one I would choose. I'm not a total Luddite. I appreciate the Web for what it does -- for example, it connected me with that column, which I otherwise might never have seen. And it gives me a forum to rant so that several -- nay, dozens -- of loyal readers worldwide can possibly connect with me. But can anyone argue that with poetry, it gives you even a fraction of the pleasure of the printed page? |
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