Since I started keeping stats on this page, about five years ago, slowly some pages have achieved for me 'mythical' status in having achieved a 1000 page views.
Remember that this is a highly specialised blog. Contemporary poetry and contemporary philosophy are perhaps two of the most recherche areas in our culture. Add the two together and the result is positively occult.
So far only two pages have arrived there:
http://williamwatkin.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/john-ashbery-tennis-court-oath.html
and
http://williamwatkin.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/postmodern-poetry-5.html#!/2007/04/postmodern-poetry-5.html
Amazingly my highest rated page is about the most obscure collection by one of the most difficult poets of the modern era since Mallarme. Perhaps only Prynne raises more eyebrows and questions.
The other is about postmodern poetry, probably the least read and commented form of postmodernism and poetry. In fact that article, it is in 9 parts, has had over 2500 hits. Amazing considering it is a specialised academic piece with one of Ashbery's most difficult poems, "Daffy Duck in Hollywood" at its center.
Bubbling under so to speak are several pages at around 500:
http://williamwatkin.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/john-ashbery-some-trees.html
http://williamwatkin.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/john-ashbery-three-poems.html#!/2007/04/john-ashbery-three-poems.html
http://williamwatkin.blogspot.co.uk/2007/07/deleuze-difference-and-repetition.html#!/2007/07/deleuze-difference-and-repetition.html
http://williamwatkin.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/john-ashbery-self-portrait-in-convex.html
http://williamwatkin.blogspot.co.uk/2007/10/charles-bernstein-introduction.html
http://williamwatkin.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/john-ashbery-double-dream-of-spring.html#!/2007/04/john-ashbery-double-dream-of-spring.html
All of these have been around for years slowly accumulating a readership but in like a rocket is:
http://williamwatkin.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/agamben-explained-in-500-words.html#!/2012/10/agamben-explained-in-500-words.html
Not quite at 500 hits it has only been around three months and if it carries on taking hits at the rate it has achieved the last few days, it will be at 1000 in just over a week. An over the coming few months, who can say, but it may end up in a special 10,000 club all its own. A the headiness of dreaming!
