Ian, thanks for your long note. You are a loyal friend to Linh Dinh, and your defense of him is passionate and articulate.

I have a couple of things to say in response. First of all, we did not remove Linh Dinh’s work from our site. We have no interest in silencing him or disappearing him. I think we’ve been quite clear at Dispatches that we’re totally against anything of that sort. His art remains available to anyone who wants to see/read it. However, we are not talking here about a personal relationship where friendship mediates difficult differences. Dispatches has an editorial stance based on clear principles. Linh Dinh’s Holocaust denying, anti-Semitic, racist views are incompatible with everything Dispatches stands for, and we had no choice but to remove him as a Contributing Editor. I can’t imagine he would want to remain as one once he found out what we think of his ideas. So your address really misses the mark in terms of our response to him.

As for your comparison of Linh Dinh and Pound, I must politely demure. Pound revolutionized English language poetry. And whatever his politics, he also was generous to a fault and throughout his life supported other writers any way he was able — rounding up money, shoes, literary opportunities, publication venues, whatever he could for writers in need.  He was a Presence, what they call a towering figure. Linh Dinh is certainly brilliant, but he ain’t no Ezra Pound. And if you want to know the truth, we would have dropped EP from our Contributing Editors list, too, if we were back in the 40s, and had just found out about his crazy radio broadcasts.

It’s all pretty simple.

Best,

Mike
https://www.dispatchespoetrywars.com/letters/dispatches-to-ian-keenan-23-january-2019-regarding-linh-dinh/
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