This is far from the usual remit of this blog, but that remit, indeed the blog in general, seem to be in abeyance, and I don’t have another outlet for such trivia.
Eliza Griswold writes, warming up to praise Gjertrud Schnackenberg as highly as she can:
Despite this atmosphere of youth and mirth, there were a small handful of things about which the editorial staff was deadly serious. Language, the rigor and talent to wield it, was tantamount.
But not, evidently, the rigor to look in a damn dictionary to check that words mean what you think. And indeed, Schnackenberg’s poetry, by the examples given, appears to measure up perfectly to such proud but fallible praise.
(Photo by Flickr user M.V. Jantzen used under Creative Commons license.)
The Edge of the American West 
16 comments
December 1, 2010 at 7:11 am
levistahl
Schnackenberg’s new book is as good as that review says: formally impressive and emotionally wrenching. It may not be tantamount, but it’s paramount.
December 1, 2010 at 7:24 am
Anderson
Great catch. I don’t know what an Eliza Griswold is, but I infer that I can safely refrain from finding out.
December 1, 2010 at 9:02 am
rea
I don’t know what an Eliza Griswold is, but I infer that I can safely refrain from finding out.
Not exactly an illiterate, but tantamount
December 1, 2010 at 9:34 am
dana
We’ll let it slide, Vance. History, philosophy, or Muppets.
December 1, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Colin
wow
“[Schnackenberg] is the most accomplished master of blank verse on the planet.”
“Here is the most powerful love poetry of our time”
“Seraphim flip pages of her notebook. The graphite of her pencil bears down on the paper. The door between life and death refuses to open.”
December 1, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Vance Maverick
To pick a poet I just learned about recently, Andrew Hudgins is capable of writing pretty good blank verse too.
December 2, 2010 at 7:44 am
Anderson
The graphite of her pencil bears down on the paper.
See, if you don’t appreciate the power of that line, then you’re paramount to a poetic illiterate.
The door between life and death refuses to open.
Perhaps she’s pushing on it from the wrong direction?
December 2, 2010 at 11:05 am
Erik Lund
It happens a lot with the older automatic doors. The sensor (“electronic eye,” as they used to say) doesn’t pick you up, so you’re pushing against the motor.
Ha! Now turn that it into a metaphor…
December 2, 2010 at 2:35 pm
William Berry
Aren’t you folks being just a little hard-hearted? It seems doubtful that Eliza Griswold wouldn’t know the difference between “paramount” and “tantamount”, so this is likely a slip, possibly even a word-processing cupertino resulting from a misspelling of the correct word.
In any case, I never cared much for the neo-liberal The Atlantic (where they actually think Jeffrey Goldberg is funny and that Megan McArdle and Clive Crook know something about economics) so I’m not surprised their editing is that piss-poor.
December 2, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Vance Maverick
William, it’s the American Prospect, not the Atlantic. And errors are harder to forgive when they come in the middle of a sentence boasting of one’s linguistic rigor.
(It’s almost a case of Muphry’s Law, except that Griswold is not literally criticizing someone else’s spelling or grammar.)
December 2, 2010 at 2:55 pm
William Berry
Right. I had followed an Atlantic link earlier and had it stuck in my head. My bad.
But both the ladies in question are quite attractive; makes me feel I little more fogiving I guess!
December 2, 2010 at 2:56 pm
William Berry
“. . . a little more forgiving . . .” of course.
December 2, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Vance Maverick
I see you corrected the typo, but not the retro sentiment.
December 2, 2010 at 4:10 pm
William Berry
Oh, well. I should have known better than to go against the thread-geist.
I am now suitably re-educated. Thanx.
December 2, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Vance Maverick
Failure of creativity on my part, I’m afraid — giving better than a pat response to a pat comment takes more wit than I had handy.
And speaking of such failures, this review made me realize how tritely I mentally divide the English poetry world into a staid establishment and a potentially-interesting counterculture. (Rather as Ron Silliman does with his “School of Quietude”.) Someone like Hudgins, not visibly counter-establishment but rewarding anyway, is a good challenge.
December 2, 2010 at 9:00 pm
Western Dave
I’ve seen Eliza Griswold speak twice. She was quite good both times, connecting with her audience (HS girls) in an engaging way and getting them to think about politics and language in new and complicated ways. Her new book, the 10th parallel, has been getting very good reviews. I’m somewhat familiar with her non-fiction writing and reportage and I find this error quite uncharacteristic of her work.
Plus she can kick your ass with one hand behind her back and not think twice about it.