Re: the Hamilton book
Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Wed, 01 Apr 1998 08:31:24 -0500
Scottie said:
> Surely one can express a little scepticism about what looks to
> some of us like contrived reclusiveness without being labelled
> an axe man ?
Actually, many people here have referred to Hamilton's book as a
"biography" (with quotes attached, as if handling a rotten fish), and I
never quite understood it. I thought it is an unfair damnation of a book
written by a man who started to write an honest biography (cf. his Lowell
bio) but -- thwarted at every turn -- was forced to frame the biographical
details in a larger story, which was the story of writing the story.
Far from being a hatchet job, I thought it dug up some good, even at times
tender, details. My only regret is that I can't read the original,
unexpurgated edition. (I don't really have the money to pay for a
photocopy of it, as was once offered here.)
And I thought him far more honorable than I would have been; Hamilton drew
the line, as he said he would, when JDS stopped publishing. It would have
been easy for him to say, OK, then I'll write everything I can get, and
proceed with dirt-mongering.
As my friend the doctor (him of the medicine, mentioned here last week)
said, "I'm with the Old Testament. Fuck 'an eye for an eye.' Make it an
eye for a tooth, and be sure you get the other guy's eye first." But we're
both from similar parts of NY, where I guess we were raised to be a bit
harsh. 8-)
--tim