COUNTER-CANON: Desire against the grain

This is the first Counter-Canon night -- texts that push against how literature usually behaves. Vuong writes a love poem to himself using someone else's words. Lorde argues that the erotic is not a luxury but a source of knowledge. Wilde's Happy Prince gives away everything he has for love that the city considers useless. Each text asks what happens when desire runs against the expectations of the world it lives in. Pay attention to the forms these writers choose -- none of them are playing it straight.