{"id":124293,"date":"2018-04-17T13:24:18","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T17:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=124293"},"modified":"2018-04-17T13:31:05","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T17:31:05","slug":"redux-the-taxman-cometh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/redux-the-taxman-cometh\/","title":{"rendered":"Redux: The Taxman Cometh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every week, the editors of<\/em>\u00a0The Paris Review\u00a0lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine\u2019s archive. You can have these unlocked\u00a0pieces delivered straight to your inbox every\u00a0Sunday by\u00a0signing up for the Redux newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today<\/span><\/span>\u00a0is tax day, but right now it\u2019s time to put\u00a0aside your W-2s, forget about your adjusted gross income, and take a break with\u00a0The Paris Review<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This week, we bring you\u00a0Derek Walcott\u2019s\u00a0Art of Poetry interview<\/a>, in which he argues for state support of artists;\u00a0Richard Stern\u2019s \u201cAudit<\/a>,\u201d a revenge tale featuring a lisping IRS agent; and\u00a0Frederick Seidel\u2019s aptly named poem \u201cWidening Income Inequality<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Derek Walcott, The Art of Poetry No. 37<\/a>
\nIssue no. 101 (Winter 1986)\u00a0<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m fifty-five now and all my life I\u2019ve tried to fight and write and jeer and encourage the idea that the state owes its artists a lot. When I was young it looked like a romance; now that I\u2019m older and I pay taxes, it is a fact. But not only do I want roads, I want pleasure, I want art.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Audit<\/a>
\nBy Richard Stern
\nIssue no. 140 (Fall 1996)\u00a0<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

When, in late August, a letter from the Treasury Department informed him that he was subject to a tax audit, Spear felt a terror unlike anything he\u2019d known since Vanessa\u2019s death. Why, after all his placid, solitary years in his Malibu Canyon cabin had he been singled out? Dismay, astonishment, fear, rage.<\/p>\n

The letter was personalized to the extent of specifying the year the IRS was auditing, 1993, and the areas of its concern, his Contributions and Business Expenses. It also indicated the place and time of the audit, the Federal Building on Los Angeles Street, and the auditor\u2019s sinister, comic name, G. Whipp.<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/header>\n
Widening Income Inequality<\/a><\/header>\n
By Frederick Seidel
\nIssue no. 206 (Fall 2013)<\/em><\/a><\/header>\n
<\/header>\n

I live a life of appetite and, yes, that\u2019s right,
\nI live a life of privilege in New York,
\nEating buttered toast in bed with cunty fingers on Sunday morning.
\nSay that again?
\nI have a rule\u2014
\nI never give to beggars in the street who hold their hands out.I woke up this morning in my air-conditioning.
\nAt the end of my legs were my feet.
\nFoot and foot stretched out outside the duvet looking for me!
\nGet up. Giddyup. Get going.
\nMy feet were there on the far side of my legs.
\nGet up. Giddyup. Get going.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you like what you read,\u00a0get a year of<\/a><\/em>\u00a0The Paris Review\u2014four new issues, plus instant access to everything we\u2019ve ever published.\u00a0<\/em>Order now and you\u2019ll get a copy of our new\u00a0book,\u00a0<\/em>The Writer\u2019s Chapbook<\/a>,\u00a0for only ten dollars more.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every week, the editors of\u00a0The Paris Review\u00a0lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine\u2019s archive. You can have these unlocked\u00a0pieces delivered straight to your inbox every\u00a0Sunday by\u00a0signing up for the Redux newsletter.     Today\u00a0is tax day, but right now it\u2019s time to put\u00a0aside your W-2s, forget about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31006],"tags":[33730,6044,712,9866,21996,21221],"class_list":["post-124293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-redux","tag-audit","tag-derek-walcott","tag-frederick-seidel","tag-richard-stern","tag-tax-day","tag-widening-income-inequality"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRedux: The Taxman Cometh<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This week we\u2019re giving you free access to a poem, a story, and an interview to get you in the taxpaying mood.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/redux-the-taxman-cometh\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Redux: The Taxman Cometh by The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 17, 2018 \u2013 Every week, the editors of\u00a0The Paris Review\u00a0lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine\u2019s archive. 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