this is so mean. I'm the last person facebook should do this to

there's this anecdote about Joseph Brodsky doing this over and over to WH Auden bc he wasn't proficient in spoken English yet. he worshipped Auden and could tell he was The Opinion Haver, so he'd just go, "Mr Auden, what do you think about [xyz]?" & Auden would talk for a year

eventually he said, "Mr. Auden, what do you think about Robert Lowell?" and Auden just said, "I don't think much of men who are nasty to women, do you?" and left it at that. king

so, I'm like that, but also cannot shut the fuck up about Robert Lowell. that's what I'm saying

played myself by making this thread, because now I want to add tweets to it about all my Opinions about how and why Auden might have wanted to avoid a conversation about Lowell, might he feel challenged by the nature of Lowell's lyric in some way, etc etc. played myself brutally.