too many Daves

Really, Karl Shapiro? Did you really write the sentence I just read in your introduction to Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer?

Take it away, Mr. Shapiro: ”Morally I regard Miller as a holy man, as most of his adherents do—Gandhi with a penis.”

Here, as a sort of a palate cleanser, is a poem by Mr. Shapiro in which he steers entirely clear of both the “Gandhi with a penis” idea and its equally emetic corollary.

In fact, that’s probably a good test. The corollary, I mean. Yes, it’s the 1960s. Yes, you’re a poet. Yes, there’s probably something pleasingly transgressive and arresting about the phrase “Gandhi with a penis.” But don’t send those words off to the publisher until you type out the corollary. Really, try it out: “Gandhi was Henry Miller without a penis.” If you can read those seven words and find that they make perfect sense to you, I guess your work is done. If they sound even a little batshit crazy, it’s time to think about revising your “Gandhi with a penis” sentence.

That’s my advice. Several decades too late, I realize.

Here, for anyone with the good sense to bridle at defining a man by one sentence he wrote, is a Bucknell University site dedicated to the memory of “one of the most distinctive American writers of the twentieth century.” I can’t vouch for that description. I hadn’t heard of Mr. Shapiro until today. Sadly, no matter how much else I ever learn about him, he will probably always be filed in my brain as the “Gandhi with a penis” guy. I hope — fervently hope — that Shapiro’s phrase will not pollute my mind every time I see a photo of Gandhi.

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UPDATE (12/29/09): I just found this exchange on page 62 of a book called The madness of art: interviews with poets and writers by Robert S. Phillips.

PHILLIPS: You regarded Miller as a holy man. You called him “Gandhi with a penis.” Do you still think of him in that way?

SHAPIRO: As a matter of fact, I don’t.

Excellent.