LeBron, meet Victor.

Fully aware this may offend fans of either or both--one an athlete in the NBA, the other a mental athlete courting the approval of those with MFAs:
"At the end of the day, all the people that was rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems they had today. I'm going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that. They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal, but they have to get back to the real world at some point."--LeBron James, reflecting on Sunday night's Miami Heat loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

"All you do is criticize people [untrue], and as far as I can tell, your only basis for attacking them is some success or attention that you lack......You need professional help, and you need to stop taking out your issues on other writers, simply because you're jealous of them.... You need therapy, but I really don't care."--excerpted from a Victor Infante tirade directed at the author of this post.

A coda to the recent Victor Infante situation.

Here's a Victor Infante quote (from his blog) from 2009:
"Sometimes, it's hard not to think that the urge for fame or success, for validation, makes tame monsters of us."


And here's how the quote ought to read:
"Sometimes, it's hard not to think that the urge for fame or success, for validation, makes us into highly literate werewolves--with an unerring instinct to savage, then banish, the powerless that annoy and infuriate us, while knowing when to be acquiescent (sometimes mute and/or apologetic) and acceptably aspirational towards the Powerful Men and Women of Word Culture whose attentions and ultimate blessings we covet."

"Enoch," A Poem by Victor D. Infante

Another visual/verbal guide to the man who once was a Huge Figure in Orange County poetry.

New poetry phenomenon: The Humble Braggart!

Cult singer/songwriter Dan Bern once wrote the line: "It ain't bragging if it's true." [found in his song "Tiger Woods"]

And, yes it's an accepted way of life in poetry communities when poets want to share the news of the journals that have published them.

But, even if I didn't know the poet who wrote this (too well, unfortuately), I'd feel that I just entered someone's weird, humid universe of self-aggrandizement-and-self-confidence-bolstering:
http://ocvictor.livejournal.com/2011/02/16/

I just can't quit reading The Rooster from Wooster's blog.

http://ocvictor.livejournal.com/841139.html

Imagine a poet who is so aesthetically conservative, it emanates from him like the scents of curry powder or garlic. And imagine that poet longing for a more raucous past--though he's comfortable these days with controlled readings and controlled poets.

As that great philosopher/trickster Duke the dog from the Bush's Beans commercials might say:

"It's just crazy!!!!"

[UPDATE 5/3/10: On Victor's blog I made a reference to another poet which I later conceded was unnecessary--his response was to throw the word "bully" at me. So I include here comments of mine, followed by his response:

To be truthful, there are some insightful entries you write here--and I value your opinions on all things comic-book, Neil Gaiman, etc.But on the subject of poetry, you can be so fatuous on occasion that irreverent responses are warranted. Your original entry makes me imagine Mitt Romney longing for a tab of Blue Sunshine.If you want to be a shaper of poets and poetry, then feedback you don't want to hear will come with the territory.

You gratuitously insult people until they to pay attention to you. You're a bully. Sorry to be the one to point it out.As always, I don't care a whit what you do, and only take exception when you use my space to needlessly insult people who've done you no harm. Gratuitously insulting people is what your blog is for.

There you have it. I'm a bully.]