“Even the best critical writing on Emily Dickinson underestimates her. She is frightening. To come to her directly from Dante, Spenser, Blake, and Baudelaire is to find her sadomasochism obvious and flagrant. Birds, bees, and amputated hands are the dizzy stuff of this poetry. Dickinson is like the homosexual cultist draping himself in black leather and chains to bring the idea of masculinity into aggressive visibility.” WritingIdeasHandsStuffBlackBirdObviousCriticalChainsAggressiveFrighteningBeesHomosexualUnderestimateMasculinityLeatherEmilyBlakeDizzyVisibilityBaudelaireSpenser Author:Camille Paglia
“We are so placid that the smallest tremor of objection to anything at all is taken as a full-scale revolution. Should any soul speak up in favor of the obvious, it is taken as a symptom of the influence of the left, the right, the pink, the black, the dangerous. An idea for its own sake - especially an obvious idea - has no respectability.” ShouldIdeasSoulLeftSpeakBlackTakenInfluenceDangerousRevolutionSakeObviousFavorsScalesSmallestSymptomsObjectionsRespectabilityPlacid Book:Art & ardor: essays Source: Art & ardor: essays
“It doesn't surprise me that aspect of the black nationalist movement, the cultural side, has triumphed because that is the aspect of the movement that was most commodifiable and when we look at the commodification of blackness we're looking at a phenomenon that's very profitable and it's connection with the rise of a black middle class I think is very obvious.” ThinkingLooksSidesBlackClassMiddleMovementAspectConnectionsSurpriseObviousMiddle ClassPhenomenonProfitableBlacknessSurprise MeCommodification Author:Angela Davis