A light distraction

After what feels like a solid month of traveling, I’ve been thinking of writing a new blog post that considers issues of community and commonality in lyric poetry, particularly in light of Mark Edmundson’s (relatively) recent Harper’s article, “Poetry Slam; Or, The decline of American verse.” I’m super late to the game, especially since the brilliant Stephen Burt has already written an incredible response to Edmundson’s article, but I have ideas about this topic that are related to my post-dissertation project, so I’m going to write it anyway. But not today–the ideas are still stewing.

In the meantime, so that this blog doesn’t feel like an abandoned internet wasteland, I wanted to post the preceding preview of my next post, along with this gem I discovered this afternoon:

Antique Chronicles of Japanese erm, Fart Competitions

If you’ve even glanced at this blog you’ll know that I have a deep and sincere love of Japanese art and literature. But you may not know that I also love a good fart joke. (That doesn’t make me less of a person–or poet or academic–right?) What I never imagined was that these two things would come together in a hilarious critique of increased Western presence in Japan during the Edo Period.

Sadly, the article says little academic research has been done in this area. Is this a new research project for me to take up? Would I ever be able to talk about it in an academic setting without giggling?

Enjoy!