[W]hen I read these now deceased poets (Cemal Süreya, Turgut Uyar, lhan Berk) I would be convinced that I could write as they did, rather in the way that someone viewing an abstract painting might be innocent enough to think he could do such a painting himself. (#)
- student: I could’ve painted that in third grade.
- me: That painting’s worth millions of dollars.
After we have these conversations, at least once a semester, I always wonder afterward whether I have given my students an insight into the nature of art, or if they simply lack the ambition to take their abstract painting skills, honed so early in their lives, and deploy them to become, de minima cynicism, rich.
Absalom, Absalom! 