While looking through reviews on the archive site for tomorrow's class, I came across some of the reviews that Whitman did of his own work that Onno mentioned on Thursday. I really don't know what to make of these reviews. They mirror the other positive reviews I read, which credit Whitman with impressive originality and talent. Still, the fact that they were written by Whitman himself is very troubling to me. He certainly does not come across as a modest man in any regard, but I wonder what his motivation for writing these reviews really was. Did he simply want to talk himself up to others? If so, why didn't he publish them anonymously, as many of the other reviews on this site have been. One reason for leaving his name in the byline may have been that he was intentionally trying to be ironic.
I have always felt that being publicly self-flattering of your accomplishments devalues how impressive your work actually was. This is of course a personal opinion and doesn't actually affect the quality of someone's work, I just value humble characteristics. Clearly being openly self-praising has not negatively affected Whitman's success, however, and these reviews may very well have immensely benefited his career.
When considering the fact that Whitman occasionally reviewed his own work, I found myself vacillating between amusement and annoyance. After reading his work, I lean more towards the former category, though this might just be because I enjoy his language. Further, though he might be a bit prideful, maybe even arrogant in some of his reviews, I think this attitude does force one to ask whether or not he's earned the right to do this. His writing prowess was held in high esteem by many back then, and the fact that we're reading a few of his works in 2015 suggests that perhaps he wasn't entirely wrong to brag on himself. Of course, it is also dishonest to cook up false reviews for yourself, but in the face of critics trying to unfairly silence at least part of his voice, perhaps he thought that the only way to balance things out was to furnish some publications with glowing reviews of his own work
ReplyDelete