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There’s something instructive in that failure, and it speaks to the raging confusion, verging on incoherence, at the heart of “Babylon” — namely, its insistence on being both a poison-pen letter and a valentine, a decadent celebration and a politically conscious corrective.

When the MacArthur Foundation was considering McPherson for the first of its “genius” grants, in 1981, Ellison wrote the foundation a poison-pen letter decrying McPherson’s “current restlessness,” and blaming his putative failures on “a condition of shock brought on by a long-delayed social mobility suddenly achieved,” while recommending others for the honor.

A college student must prevent an impending disaster when he erroneously sends a poison-pen letter to his girlfriend.

Lennon’s poison-pen letter targeting his former band mate, Paul McCartney.

Just one year later, Truman was a thinner-skinned president and father when he sent a poison-pen letter to The Post’s music critic Paul Hume for his harsh review of Margaret’s singing.