Reading this interview with Terry Eagleton made me think of this recent article kicking the everloving shit out of his Marxist apologia. But it also reminded me of a recent email exchange I had with my friend Arthur, where I had occasion to share with him Matt Taibbi’s famous description of Eagleton as “physically resembling a giant runny nose”. That in turn inspired a bit of deliciously mean-spirited verse from Arthur, which I am now sharing with you:
‘A runny nose in person and a snot
In prose?’ You must mean Eagleton. A sot,
A Trot with three cribs snagged by playing prole,
He loves sweet dogma in his Catholic soul.
Capitalism is a mortal sin
On which to trade in Theory and cash in
In fact—highest ideals make deals with merest
Point-scoring twaddle of a sharp careerist.
The words of academic politicians
Repeat the same text in revised editions,
But books that trend so well when newly minted
May not wear well enough to be reprinted.