The discussion here at K. Silem Mohammad’s blog, http://limetree.ksilem.com/ (Dead Kitten Poetics) reminds me of a quote from an old beloved show of mine that used to be on MTV, Daria, from the episode “Quinn the Brain:”
“Her writing is BAD. Don’t people know the difference between GOOD and BAD?”

Did you ever feel you knew in your gut a piece of writing was good or bad, but couldn’t explain why? Is this due to a shortcoming in our poetics, the individual’s taste, or socialized constructs of taste? Something beyond definable style or subject matter, some ineffable “it.” Like when you find someone irresistably attractive, but you can’t say why, or why you love asparagus.

(For a fascinating discussion of the false dichotomies of avant-garde versus school o’ quietude, see here, http://samizdatblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/field-charts-venn-diagrams-and-dead.html.)
So many interesting blog posts, so little time. Did I mention I spent today getting three fillings, so these interesting posts are distracting me from the fact that I look like one of those old-fashioned cartoon people with puffy jaws and ice bags tied to their faces.