The news that the 12th incarnation of Doctor Who - the BBC's flagship sci-fi series, and a sacred pop culture cow to some - has been announced, and it is Peter Capaldi, that sweary Scot from that poli-sci show - is a bit of a let down. If one considers that Britain's leading TV/film icons of serial success - James Bond, the Doctor, Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Robin Hood - are white males - it might have been hoped that, this not being 1963, but rather fifty years later, the Beeb might have actually made the good Doctor a woman, or someone of Black, or Asian - or Other - descent. It might have actually been thrilling to ask that chap from The Marigold Hotel, for instance - or Gillian Anderson. Of course, Idris Elba would have been great - but he was likely busy, given he will win the Oscar this year for playing Mandela. Capaldi is a brilliant comedic actor of extraordinary timing and energy. His Doctor Who will be fun and thrilling. What he won't be is much of a new thing in the universe.
When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se. What do I mean by smart?
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