Lawrence Joseph’s most recent books of poems are Into It and Codes, Precepts, Biases, and Taboos: Poems 1973-1993, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. His book of prose, The Game Changed, is published by the University of Michigan Press in its Poets on Poetry series. He is Tinnelly Professor of Law at St. John’s University School of Law in New York City.
In Moby-Dick, in the chapter “The Fossil Whale,” Ishmael proclaims: “To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.” The theme of Joyce Carol Oates’s Blonde–well, it’s a