4.21.2005

Foetry Goes Down

Today's NYT details the fall of Foetry, a place of some discussion on this site.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/21/books/21poet.html

7 comments:

kclou said...

Also: if you go to foetry.com, you'll see the rebuttal, including a quote that is, well, ungenerous toward one of Iowa's own.

Brando said...

And of course, once again, the media "gets it wrong." TLB and I have discussed this before, and we've wondered if anybody ever says, after an unflattering article, "yep, they nailed it. I'm an asshole."

I guess the fox will keep jumping after those grapes after all.

Nate said...

The whole Foetry thing's quite odd. In some ways I don't think either side is behaving like adults. Foetry has always seemed a bit hyper-alarmist/freakish-conspiracy-theory-nuts, and their anonymity seems cowardly; yet, the publishers' undying attack on their anonymity seems diversionary. Rather than confronting some of Foetry's valid points about seemingly rigged contests, they are simply dodging the bullet, going the ad hominem route. I guess what I mean is that I think Foetry raises valid concerns, but does so in a way that's hard to take seriously. Other thoughts in this debacle?

SER said...

Nate, I think you've perfectly captured the situation. It's hard to be wholeheartedly sympathetic to either side since they're both kind of acting like babies. I laughed at Jorie Graham's quote in the Times today - I mean, come on.

TLB said...

Yes, yes, yes, thank you, Nate--though Foetry raises some important issues that I think the contest world needs to address, it's hard to take it as seriously as I'd like with the vitriol that spewed out of the site and the forums. In fact it almost made me sympathize with Jorie Graham.

However, if Alan Cordle was looking to shock the poetry world as a way of raising the issue, it clearly worked. No one would be talking about the problem (especially on Talk of the Nation and the NYTimes) if he'd sent some polite but strenuous complaints to the presses he thinks are corrupt.

TLB said...
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Jane said...

What's really nuts is that the guy isn't even a poet. (He claims.) The whole thing was fueled by frustration on behalf of his wife, who is one. And who never wanted him to create Foetry.com in the first place. The poor woman.