I introduce my British lit. class by quoting Blake: "That which can be made
explicit to the idiot is not worth my care," etc. and continue with Romanticism
and connect to Modernism and Pound.  And it's an undergraduate class.  REALLY
undergraduate sophomores at a two-year college.
  -Grace

charles moyer wrote:

> Here, Here or is it Hear, Hear?
>
>             "But in Ealing
> With the most bank-clerkly of Englishmen?"
>
> And the question here of teaching Pound to undergraduates may be best
> answered by maintaining the tradition as it has been with the poison label
> on his works. Nothing excites the imagination more than labeling something
> dangerous or forbidden. And imagine kids -poetry that can get you high!
> After all as it has been pointed out by a recent National Geographic study
> only one in seven (14%) of American youths from 18 to 24 (draft age) could
> find Iraq on a world map. How many do you think could find Pound in a
> library?
>      Ah, "the triumph of the superficiality and the apotheosis of the raw"
> -William James (American pragmatist)
>     Dirk, Do you really introduce men and women to Pound? I found him to to
> be a real conversation stopper long ago. But I'm going to try something new.
> Upon hearing anything which remotely sounds like American Studies I am going
> to casually say, "You know Ezra Pound, the poet, possibly could shed some
> light on that subject, but the government has forbidden his books and burned
> all of them they could find." Well, OK, it wouldn't be exactly true, but
> these are dire times, and we must use drastic methods if American Studies
> are to survive. You know they hate us because we are "free", not because we
> are stupid. Gore Vidal watch out.
>
> -Moyer
>
> "'They were only war casualties,' he said. 'It was a pity, but you can't
> always hit your target. Anyway, they died in the right cause.'
>     'Would you have said the same if it had been your old nurse with her
> blueberry pie?'
>     He ignored my facile point. 'In a way you could say they died for
> democracy,' he said."
>     -from Graham Greene's "The Quiet American"
>
> ----------
> >From: Dirk Johnson <[log in to unmask]>
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: Re: American studies
> >Date: Thu, Jan 2, 2003, 11:47 PM
> >
>
> > Interesting.  Well, one of the reasons that I love Ezra Pound (and it's
> > possibly [almost said "perhaps" but I remember his annotations to the
> > rough draft of the Wasteland - 'damn per'apses'] the main reason) is
> > that one could use nearly any "[country] Studies" to describe him.  What
> > I mean is, Homer was the "education of the Greeks" and Pound is the
> > "education of the Americans and Europeans".
> >
> > Have I gone too far? Possibly [but seeing as he had been born...]....
> > but, though I wonder why I MUST introduce ol' Ez to those who don't like
> > him or immediately respond to him, I've introduced many men and women to
> > him in person (I mean, saying "here, read this" or "hear, listen to
> > this")....  and, Guess What?.... their encounter with the old fascist
> > fart made them DEEPLY aware of the poetry of the WORLD.  Not to say that
> > they (or I) always agree(d) with him [EP].... hell, I love Milton,
> > e.g.....  But Ol Ez forced me to THINK about whether I like Paradise
> > Lost... not just assume that I must because.. oh, I don't know... maybe
> > someone I admired (like Mr. Pearlman, to pull a name out of a silk hat
> > perched on a Bradford millionaire) liked it..... Id est... EP made me
> > think for MYSELf {in his poetry AND in his prose}... badly as I pull it
> > off, and as idiotically as I've picked up some of the man's worst habits.
> >
> > Jon & Anne Weidler wrote:
> >
> >> People have wondered why Kate Cone, reasonable as she is, would object
> >> that American studies aren't safe on the Pound list.  She might have
> >> said so because of some mildly disgruntled comments like these,
> >> authored by Jay Anania:  "I thought this was a Pound list.   Certainly
> >> in the past, before the long tempus tacendi, it was often very
> >> interesting[. . .] [But] questions about how to teach Zane Grey has me
> >> a little confused.  On the other hand, I thanks Charles, Carlo, and
> >> some others for their insights, and especially their ability to form a
> >> lively sentence."
> >>
> >> I'm the fellow who started the ZG thread (about eleven hours ago, on a
> >> whim), and couldn't help but wonder about the spirit of such confusion
> >> myself, much as I suspect Kate did.  "American studies" of course
> >> includes Zane Grey, as Sylvester P. just noted.  Kate (I assume) was
> >> reacting negatively to the notion that this list be strictly about
> >> Pound and nothing else.  I think that she might have been overhasty in
> >> asking to unsubscribe (Kate: it would be nice if you didn't follow
> >> through on that threat!), but I sympathize with her gripe.  Jay likes
> >> well-written sentences and well-informed people; so do we all, I hope;
> >> however, he seems not to like it that threads stray from our proper
> >> topic.
> >>
> >> Opinions are opinions, and this is by no means a closed question: my
> >> wife warns me that many newsgroups expect posters to remain on their
> >> stated subject, and only write towards the list's main purpose.  I
> >> hadn't anticipated that this would be such a list (since after all,
> >> Pound didn't exactly restrict his discursive interests) but would like
> >> to be informed if such is the case.  If not, I see no reason to
> >> complain about posts that drive over the curbs, so to speak.  I'm no
> >> stranger to listgroups, and though I am a relative newcomer here, I can
> >> tell when there are long-time members with prestige and clout, and
> >> around whom other long-time members will collect.  I value the
> >> diversity of this list (even though the sentiment makes me choke on
> >> such regurgitated undergraduate platitudes).  Surely it's permissible
> >> for newcomers to introduce lines of discussion, and I don't think it's
> >> much of a presumption.
> >>
> >> Enlighten me, for I am burdened-
> >> Jon
> >>
> >
> > --
> >
> > Dirk Johnson
> > 676 Geary #407
> > San Francisco, CA 94102
> >
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