Knock Backs

We all have the experience of getting knocked back on some things; hopes dashed, dreams smashed. Writers typically receive piles of rejection letters or miss out on prizes or receive bad reviews for books.

In a letter to the American poet, Anne Sexton, in 1967, the English poet, Ted Hughes, wrote a list of the harms that can come from being reviewed favourably. His comments were meant to console Sexton for the bad reviews she received in England for her book Live or Die. Hughes's comments can be applied as a balm to all sorts of disappointments. It goes like this:

'They [favourable reviews] tend to confirm one in one's own conceit - unless they praise what you yourself don't like.

Also they make you self-conscious about your virtues - just as when you praise a child for some natural charm.

Also they create an underground opposition: applause is the beginning of abuse.

Also they deprive you of your own anarchic liberties by electing you into the government.

Also, they separate you from your devil, which hates being observed and only works happily incognito.'

Sexton's biographer notes that the poet posted this good advice over her desk, but that 'it was, unfortunately, to grow more and more pertinent'.

Anne Sexton. A Biography by Dianne Wood Middlebrook. Virago paperback, 1991. Available from the Book Camel. In good condition. Contains photos, appendix, sources and notes, bibliography, index. 488pp. Price: $15 plus postage and packaging.