Dennis Claxton
They're no more completely irrelevant than they are a legitimate basis for dismissing work out of hand based on the author's politics. It's something else to chew on when wrestling with someone's work.
Here's an excerpt from a review of an Allen Ginsberg bio. The story I remember is Ginsberg, Burroughs and others went to visit Celine at home. They were worried about dogs that greeted them at the gate and Celine explained that he had the dogs to keep the Jews away. Ginsberg got in anyway:
http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/08/specials/ginsberg-miles.html
....Ginsberg, with an infinite ability to tolerate noxious points of view, was quick to celebrate predecessors with fascist pasts. This biography records the pious visits he paid in Europe to Ezra Pound and (together with Mr. Burroughs) to Louis-Ferdinand Celine. Pound, as it turned out, was regretful about the past and bemoaned his ''stupid suburban prejudice'' against the Jews. ''At seventy I realized that instead of being a lunatic, I was a moron,'' he said. Celine, unrepentant, was railing against the Jews still. Which didn't inhibit Mr. Ginsberg from saying, ''We salute you as the greatest writer in France!''
^^^ CB: I think this means Ginsberg was a liberal (smile).
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