Camille Paglia, for National Poetry Month

When it comes to Camille Paglia, I'm not really a fan. It isn't her ideas that put me off--I actually find myself agreeing with her the majority of the time--so much as a style and tone issue I have with her.

Salon has an interview with her today that more or less typifies how ghastly elitist and self-absorbed I find her personality, and also had me nodding my head in agreement at many points (and zoning out at others. The politics of the academy is one of the most boring topics in the world, in my opinion.)

But here, for my poet friends, is Camille Paglia on modern poets:

Well, first of all, they better stop talking just to each other in those small groups of the like-minded. I used to like John Ashbery, for example, but he got addicted to critical adulation. Too many people want academic idolization. They want the prizes. I want the poets and all artists to address the general audience again: Stop addressing the like-minded true believers, cut out the partisan politics, stop thinking that the only people you can speak to are those who agree with you already. Writers and artists need to start addressing those who don't agree with them.