another zinger from Philip Larkin
Oct. 30th, 2005 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynnegaI'm still plugging away at the Larkin letters. He does get ever more misanthropic as he gets older (and, sadly, more right-wing and racist as well). But he does come up with some great stuff. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
the_red_shoes, I thought you'd especially appreciate this one, from 1975:
"Ted Hughes was here [in Hull] last week, giving a reading - the first time since about 1962. He filled our hall and got a great reception. I was in the chair, providing a sophisticated, insincere, effete, and gold-watch-chained alternative to his primitive forthright virile leather-jacketed persona. Perhaps I can send you a photograph in due course." Hee. (Unfortunately, if there was a photograph, it's not reproduced in the book...)
ETA: And on the next page: "At Ilkley literature festival a woman shrieked and vomited during a Ted Hughes reading. I must say I've never felt like shrieking. We had the old crow over at Hull recently, looking like a Christmas present from Easter Island. He's all right when not reading!"
the_red_shoes, I thought you'd especially appreciate this one, from 1975:"Ted Hughes was here [in Hull] last week, giving a reading - the first time since about 1962. He filled our hall and got a great reception. I was in the chair, providing a sophisticated, insincere, effete, and gold-watch-chained alternative to his primitive forthright virile leather-jacketed persona. Perhaps I can send you a photograph in due course." Hee. (Unfortunately, if there was a photograph, it's not reproduced in the book...)
ETA: And on the next page: "At Ilkley literature festival a woman shrieked and vomited during a Ted Hughes reading. I must say I've never felt like shrieking. We had the old crow over at Hull recently, looking like a Christmas present from Easter Island. He's all right when not reading!"
