{"id":1651,"date":"2012-03-09T15:28:56","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T19:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=1651"},"modified":"2013-12-18T20:45:41","modified_gmt":"2013-12-19T00:45:41","slug":"hall-to-mcnair-july-28-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/hall-to-mcnair-july-28-1980\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall to McNair: July 28, 1980"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"Hall-to-McNair-07-28-1980\"<\/a>\"Hall-to-McNair-07-28-1980\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[Click image to view]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

28 July 1980<\/p>\n

Wes McNair
\nBox 43
\nNorth Sutton, NH 03260<\/p>\n

Dear Wes,<\/p>\n

It is when Superman Died that I need. Thank you and
\nsorry.<\/p>\n

Davison saw quite a few poems that Joey sent him,
\nand he rejected them. As it happens, he did not see the
\nthree that you mentioned: Old Trees, The Fat Enter Heaven,
\nand Here on Television [sic]. (He would not like the last. But
\nhe might like the first two.)<\/p>\n

But they are at the moment out at another magazine.<\/p>\n

I will send them to him when they come back, if they
\ncome back. Earlier, although they were addressed to him \u2013
\nand although Davison has bought poems by other of Joey\u2019s
\nclients \u2013 the poems were rejected by Mary Jo Salter, who
\nreads for him, and therefore I am not even certain that he
\nreads them. But he may have done.
\n[Written in margin<\/em>: Almost certain<\/span> \u2013 or they would have had slips.]<\/p>\n

Anyway, I will send those to him when they come back \u2013
\nbut I think it ought to be Joey who does the sending. I think
\nyou ought to be consistent, or we ought to be \u2013 I don\u2019t think
\nthat some poems should come directly from you and others from
\nJoey Amaryllis.<\/p>\n

I think that Calling Harold is finished, perfect, and
\nwonderful!<\/p>\n

I think that The Fat People of the Old Days is a wonderful
\nidea, and ought to be terrific \u2013 but I think that it is
\nawkward and unfinished, and I think it would be a real mistake
\nto send it out now. That is, I think it will be better a
\nfew months from now.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t really believe in epigraphs very much. This
\nis a funny saying, but then it appears to be the saying of
\nthe author\u2019s child, and therefore he is saying \u201cLook at what
\na cute child I\u2019ve got!\u201d Often they are appeals to authority.
\nSometimes they give off an appearance of diffidence. I really
\ndon\u2019t like this one, even though I like the line itself of
\ncourse. I don\u2019t think it has much to do with the poem.<\/p>\n

Then I think that the language of the poem is slack
\nhere and there, but that the center of it is just pure gold.
\nI think that \u201cdriving some mad.\u201d can be better, because
\nafter all this is a cliche, to be driven mad, and nothing
\nimaginative about it. I love the notion of knuckles and
\nelbows sinking into dimples, but then I\u2019m bewildered by the
\nprepositional clause that follows. It is obvious that it is<\/p>\n

2\/<\/p>\n

dimples of fat. But then you say \u201cof the fat.\u201d And I am
\nlost. In fact, that generic \u201cthe<\/span> fat,\u201d detaching the phenomenon
\nfrom people, seems to me probably a mistake. I like the man.
\nI like the responsibility. I like the fathers folding it
\nin their pants \u2013 but I don\u2019t like \u201cthrough the cold which\/
\nalways was.\u201d The expressions seems to me kind of glib there
\nand I realize it is a reference to the epigraph. But I don\u2019t
\nneed either. But <\/del>There is nothing wrong with mentioning the
\ncold: I just think that this way of mentioning it seems
\nas if it intended to be clever.<\/p>\n

I love the wide doors and the passing the potatoes!
\nBut I don\u2019t\u2019 like the \u201clong\/vowels of wind\u2026\u201d because there
\nare no calories in vowels at all \u2013 unless you put them there.
\nI mean, if it were the \u201cbuttery\/vowels\u2026\u201d\u2026or something.
\nBut \u201cthe long\/ vowels of wind\u201d just sounds poetical, kind
\nof a puff of poetical smoke. Then I don\u2019t think it really
\nends as well as it might. Partly I think this is the syntax.
\nThe poem ends with two simple declarative sentences, short
\nlines, brief sentences\u2026 It seems kind of staccato or tight-
\nlipped, here at the end. I think it ought to get better!<\/p>\n

And I do, indeed, think it is yet one more marvelous
\npoem \u2013 almost.<\/p>\n

Love as ever,<\/p>\n

Don<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\n

McNair’s note about this letter:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0The early version my poem \u201cThe Fat People of the Old Days,\u201d <\/span><\/span>whose initial draft has been lost,<\/span><\/span> had an epigraph linking the title to my daughter\u2019s question as a young child: \u201cWere there fat people in the old days?\u201d — the epigraph Hall refers to in his discussion here. <\/span><\/span>I continued to come back to the poem during the spring and fall of the ensuing year, sending Don another draft, not quite complete, on October 8, 1981<\/span><\/a><\/span>.Yet <\/span><\/span>the poem\u2019s published version, which appears in the footnote of the next letter, shows that I eventually retained the parts he liked and replaced those he questioned, including the epigraph, despite my initial reluctance.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Click image to view] 28 July 1980 Wes McNair Box 43 North Sutton, NH 03260 Dear Wes, It is when Superman Died that I need. Thank you and sorry. Davison saw quite a few poems that Joey sent him, and he rejected them. As it happens, he did not see the three that you mentioned: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2206,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35324,596,42965,35504,42973],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1651"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11302,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions\/11302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}