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Novelist Aspirant's Question To Nadar; A Satire
Like you, Monsieur, the great, famous Stendhal
preferred that his name be mononymous.
I cannot write like him, at all.
Perhaps my audience needs a photograph
to directed their expected reaction
(like a lame man, or a general, needs a staff
to help negotiate
the terrain),
and then I would have less to explain,
which they might the more appreciate:
for greed, say, a hippopotamus,
for a joke, a hearty laugh.
But, consider Stendhal's new-published book---
the title?, Lamiel,
I had an early look
at it and I think he tried to tell
the story around the beauty of a long-haired boy:
such a theory would really annoy
me if were not mine:
what image to use, in what direction
to search; perhaps an ancient construct,
and definitely of Roman, imperial design;
the Colosseum, perhaps, or an aqueduct,
or some other very impressive erection.
Starward
