ASHBERY SIGHTING: WHEN YOU ARE NOT AN EXAMPLE (El Pais)

Ashbery’s Three Poems makes a surprising appearance in this Letter to the Editor about Novac Djokavic appearing in El Pais.


LETTERS TO THE DIRECTOR

When you are not an example

Readers comment on the Novak Djokovic case, the role of culture during confinement, American politics and the harmful effects of technology on people

LETTERS TO THE DIRECTOR

JAN 17, 2022

Repeat the mistakes of the past

After reading the interview with the illustrious and worthy Noam Chomsky, I immediately remembered a few words from the poet of the New York School, John Ashbery, who died in 2017. The author, one of the most influential of American letters, writes in the prologue to the book Three Poems (1972): "We are constantly fabricating our lives and personalities on the fly, in a way that Europeans do not practice. Fortunately, I think, we improvise."

It is clear, and after reading the interview even more, that today the United States is much closer to repeating old mistakes than improvising modern solutions.

Francisco García Castro. Estepona (Malaga)