does this point to any necessary,
inherently biological connection
between pain and beauty?

--- Jon & Anne Weidler <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> That's interesting info, TR.  Thanks for it.  I'm certain that
> Zane
> Grey's dentistry was less than painless, anesthetics being
> what they
> once were.
>
> Oh my God! -- I just realized something: anesthetic is an
> an-aesthetic,
> dulling the senses, perhaps dulling "beauty" along the way.
> Perhaps
> there's something valuable about that which diminishes our
> capacities
> to feel pain & beauty.  Now all we need is an anpolitic, and
> we'll be
> blissful and fine, secure in the homeland of the lotus eaters.
>  Or
> maybe we've already been anesthetized and anpoliticized.  The
> only
> question now is whether they're one and the same.
>
> Sorry - no direct Pound content here (except obliquely.)
>
> -Jon
>
> On Thursday, January 2, 2003, at 10:44 AM, Kate Cone wrote:
>
> > Jon:
> >
> > As usual, you a the voice of reason. I have 2 professors in
> the
> > American &
> > New England Studies Program here at Univ. Southern Maine who
> are
> > knowledgable about Western Studies. Joe Conforti teaches a
> "West"
> > class that
> > everyone raves about. He might have some ideas for you. He's
> at
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> > Kent Ryden teaches more from a cultural geography/nature
> > writer/ecocriticism
> > angle. He teaches Wallace Stegner, though, so he might have
> some ideas
> > about
> > Zane Grey. Mostly Joe and Kent would probably put Grey's
> popularity
> > into
> > context for you. Kent is [log in to unmask]
> >
> > Kate
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Jon & Anne Weidler" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 11:30 AM
> > Subject: A complete (ly welcome) change of subject
> >
> >
> >> I have nothing to say about whether or not Pound would
> e-mail to a
> >> list
> >> purporting to discuss his work.  The notion is absurd and
> misleading,
> >> in my opinion, and a poor use of our collective gray
> matter.
> >>
> >> So I'm about to begin teaching next semester, in about two
> weeks.  The
> >> first novel I'm teaching (like three other novels I'll be
> teaching) is
> >> one I've never read before, The Riders of the Purple Sage
> by Zane
> >> Grey.
> >>   I've been told that this book was a massive bestseller in
> the teens
> >> and twenties, and that it is something of a standard bearer
> for the
> >> Western novel at large.  Does anyone have any excited or
> exciting
> >> opinions about this book, its genre, or the possible
> relationships
> >> between it and the modernisms flourishing at the time?  I
> have no idea
> >> myself, though I imagine I'll develop a number of opinions
> as I read
> >> the damn thing.  Oh yes, and does anyone (preferably
> educators) have
> >> any opinions about teaching books one has never read?  I
> seem to be
> >> drawn inexorably towards the new read whenever I'm
> designing a class,
> >> and have convinced myself that my inclination has some
> pedagogical
> >> justification.  Of course, I'm blind to much about myself.
> Who after
> >> all is not?
> >>
> >> Speaking of which, the internet doesn't just suck because
> you can't
> >> see
> >> the asshole on the other end.  You also can't see the
> people who read
> >> your screed, and since you can't recognize or accomodate
> their
> >> responses, you also can't see the asshole on your own end.
> So hah.
> >> Not only does everyone have an asshole, everyone in some
> respect is
> >> one.  Let's be polite, productive, and entertaining
> assholes, shall
> >> we?
> >>
> >> One other thing: what's the point of distinguishing between
> poetics
> >> and
> >> politics, when any inclined reader can find that they're
> implied in
> >> one
> >> another?  I'm sure that the teenager writing the broken
> hearted poem
> >> in
> >> his Trig class doesn't think much about its socio-political
> sources,
> >> consequences, and subterranean content.  Does that mean one
> couldn't
> >> read it as a document that emerges from a socially
> pressurized
> >> evnironment?  Maybe you wouldn't want to disillusion (or
> discourage or
> >> confuse) the Noble Teenager by telling him what it was that
> he REALLY
> >> said, but that's not really the point.
> >>
> >> This seems like a fight about what's REALLY being said in a
> given
> >> verse, and that by itself begs the question.  The political
> seems more
> >> materially grounded as a concept than does "the poetic",
> but that's a
> >> dead end: neither concept, the political or the poetic,
> rests on some
> >> permanent or secret foundation that makes one more real
> than the
> >> other.
> >>   After all, they're concepts, not colors or quantities
> (which I know
> >> are also concepts, but hopefully you get my drift.)  And as
> concepts,
> >> we can recognize when they apply and when they don't, when
> they're
> >> gateways to interesting discussion and when they're just
> ideological
> >> toys.  Pound certainly did not consider the political
> disposable, and
> >> neither did he dismiss the poetic.  Partially, what he did
> was to set
> >> the stage for the difficulties we're having, implicating
> the lofty
> >> traditions of fossilized poetries within the sordid ethical
> >> complexities of modernizing humanity.  And vice versa.  I
> realize that
> >> what I've written says very little that is substantive,
> merely that
> >> there are connections between poetry and politics that
> Pound makes
> >> active problems of, but perhaps it can clear the way for a
> more
> >> interesting dialogue, and a little less of an
> >> "I'm-astounded-by-that-asshole-over-there" polemical
> clearing house.
> >>
> >> There's no need to save Pound from anyone.  He's already
> dead.
> >>
> >> Respect,
> >> Jon Weidler
> >>
> >


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