Doubling in the Middle
Roger Angell, a writer for the New Yorker since the 1940s, once described palindromes as “a literary form in which the story line is controlled by the words rather than by the author.” My sense is that Duncan would probably say that’s a description of other people’s palindromes. Because part of what makes him a master is his refusal to cede control. When things are going really well with a Barry Duncan palindrome, when he’s really in a zone, he thinks to himself, I’m making these letters do my bidding. Sure, he’ll have fun with word combinations, and he pens countless short palindromes that probably ought to be considered as coauthored by the words themselves.
There’s a joke he likes to tell, a pickup line he swears he’d never really use: “I’m a master palindromist, and I can teach you how to neutralize the letter h.” Not so lucky in love, he often teases his mother sarcastically by saying, “Mom, I don’t have a girlfriend. And I’m a master palindromist.” It’s fair to say that Duncan’s under no illusions about how the world perceives the invisible craft.
Duncan has tried writing in other styles, but his talent for more traditional literary forms has never approached his way with palindromes. “I have a real problem constructing plot,” he says, “and I think part of that is that I have little command of logic in my daily life. I mean, I just don’t know what’s going on.”
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elizabethacason said:
YES THE PICKUP LINE! This is, like, my new favorite article about my new favorite man. For real!
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