"Bill Knott is the author of numerous books of poetry and an associate professor at the Writing, Literature & Publishing Faculty of Emerson College in Boston." And according to the One True Source for all Knowledge®, "[Bill] Knott posted his entire catalog of poems to a blog, citing dissatisfaction with the print world and considering his poetry 'failed' as 'none of [it] achieved any popularity or significant critical acclaim'."
Wow. At first glance, Bill Knott is my kind of guy; he blogs out of professional failure. But then he seems to get a little kooky in a recent blog post, comparing librarians to Nazis because we weed books.
Deacquisition.
...
Everybody knows librarians are sexually repressed; that is a truism, a generally accepted fact—
Nope. I wouldn't argue with that. I think I have some serious problems in that department. Just ask my mom, my dear, sweet, hot mom.
And indeed for most librarians the only erotic release possible occurs when they commit the perverted act of deacquisition, when they destroy the products of creative minds.
Well, Bill, to be honest, I tried that once, but could only manage enough fluid to "deacquire" a thin volume of poetry, so that might be the reason for your anger. When I was a young man, sure I could use "erotic release" to deacquire a whole carton of Stephen Kings, all those 700 page novels. But since I'm older and poetry volumes are slim, these are what I choose. Why don't you take up writing fiction?
What do librarians do? They take the books and toss them in the dumpster out back — have you noticed the huge dumpsters behind most public libraries? Have you looked into them, to see what they contain? You probably haven't, because they hide or camoflage these dumpsters,—
We don't camouflage our dumpster; it says clearly on the outside, "Books that Suck Ass" in large angry red letters.
You can question them about their discard policies, but don't delude yourself they'll tell you the truth: remember they're public employees, they're like members of your legislature, malfeasants who hide their evil behind walls of bureaucratise and lies.
No, seriously, we deacquire books that suck ass. If your book has sat on the shelf for five years gathering dust, then what do you expect us to do with it? Warehouse it forever? Collecting poetry is always a problem for libraries; it doesn't produce the same circulation statistics as fiction, and we throw out the crap that nobody reads.
I'm glad you've posted every poem on your site for others to enjoy, but I'm really not sure why the librarian pissed you off. Did she throw away your favorite book? It's not clear to me. Take a breath, count to 100, then follow up your post. You crazy old kook.
