Edward Said, in his address to the MLA at the recent convention in Chicago, suggested that computers are making students lazy lightweights. Typewriters, and perhaps better yet, pen and ink, helped scholars extend their thoughts, and get it right the first time. If one can cut and paste, then the first time through can be rougher than rough. And how many can direct their attention by an enquiry for extended periods? Where are the hungry students, a scholar asked in the Chronicle last year. Where are the enquiring minds? Without these, Pound and Pound studies really will do little more than clear the boundary of the 21st century.
Robert E Kibler, PhD
English and Humanities
Valley City State University
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701-845-7108
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"Pay no attention to names. Investigate
into the reasons things are as they are."
Chu Hsi, The Great Synthesis, 3:27b
>>> "C.Brandon Rizzo" <[log in to unmask]> 01/16 7:00 PM >>>
It's interesting that even at the graduate level students still need to
'like' something in order to fully investigate it. Pound can be difficult to
relate to, esp. if one is unfamiliar with anything the man wrote, yet the
fact remains that anyone who wishes to seriously study 20th century poetry
must deal with Pound, and enough of him so that the scope of what EP did for
poetics is not glossed over. Such students are my peers, and I find it
irritating that most haven't bothered to read much of Williams at all, never
mind Pound. In fact, my undergraduate years were mostly spent in defense of
W.C.Williams' work. Students just didn't 'like' him--one might as well have
given us Keats to read, for the response would have been similar. I do wonder
at times WHY this is. Perhaps it's a poor generalization on my part to
insinuate that my peers, i.e., young writers/students, are a bit 'lazy' when
it comes to studying the staples of modern poetics. I attended three
universities in three states (all on the east coast) before finally settling
down and obtaining a degree, and I have to say that most are either
unfamiliar with Pound or simply don't give a hoot about him. And Williams, as
I mentioned earlier, was often a subject of indifference, if not derision.
--CB
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