I am a bookseller by trade. But I have read Pound and written in the
style of the Cantos for 30 years. I also studied with Dr. Rudd Fleming,
Pound's collaborater on Elektra and other Greek drama during Pound's
incarceration at St. E.'s. I first studied with Dr. Fleming as an
undergraduate but upon leaving the university, Rudd and I frequently,
informally and energetically discussed Pound and modernism as well as
potential thematic material for future work, an arrangement that lasted
for nearly three decades until his death a few years ago. I must say,
however, Rudd's openess toward me as someone not associated with the
academy was the exception and not the rule. My experience of academics
toward the serious reader and/or the serious poet/practitioner without
portfolio comports more with the quote below from the Jacobin tailor,
Francis Place which appears in Don Herzog's book Poisoning the Minds of
the Lower Orders. All the more the pity, because when it comes to 
writing of poetry, the production of imaginative work itself, I find
that the axiom "those who can do, those who can't teach" to be true with
an unmuffled intensity, and that goes for the folks operating within MFA
programs too.
 
Francis Place, the radical tailor, ruefully revealed the consequences of
putting on airs. Upstairs from his shop, he had a library of some 1,000
volumes, a collection he always tried to keep secret from his clients.
But Place’s foreman happened to take one customer upstairs to try on
some pantaloons. Surprised, the customer turned sarcastic; a few days
later, he taunted Place for some "trifling omission," suggesting that he
was paying too much attention to his books, not enough to his business.
The customer didn’t just take his business elsewhere. "His pride was
hurt," so he persuaded some others to desert Place as well.
 
               Had these persons been told that I had never read a
book,                that I was ignorant of every thing of my business,
that I                sotted in a public house, they would not have
made                      the least objection to me. I should have been
a "fellow"                beneath them, and they would have patronized
me; but, -                 to accumulate books and to be supposed to
know something                about their contents, to seek for friends,
too,
               among literary and scientific men, was putting myself
on                an equality with themselves, if not indeed assuming
a                   superiority; was an abominable offense in a tailor,
if                  not a crime, which deserved punishment…The
Autobiography                of Francis Place (1771-1854)
 
               
              from Poisoning the Minds of the Lower Orders by Don Herzog 
 
As attested to by the quote above, I read the work of academics all the
time with great relish and in many disciplines. But in return my contact
with academics has been patronizing and dismissive and not from my end.-
Carlo Parcelli    
 
 
 
Joe Brennan wrote:
> 
> Tim,
> 
> I think Robert's remark smacks of more than academic chauvinism.  As to
> changing "academic" to "serious" -- sure, it would make more sense, but it
> would be like changing day to night, as this would then become a much
> different point than the one that Robert initially makes.  I'm sure you'll
> agree that there are many serious people who're neither academics or nor
> researchers.  This is particularly true, in my experience, as regards Pound.
> However, if Robert chooses to emend his remarks by changing academic to
> serious, then I'm willing to modify my position also.
> 
> joe...
> 
> In a message dated 8/20/99 4:27:25 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
> writes:
> 
> <<
>  Joe,
>  I would agree that, as it stands, Robert's remark smacks of academic
>  chauvinism, but to characterize it as "most absurd" is to overstate things
> more
>  than a little. The allusive nature of much (though by no means all!) of
> Pound's
>  poetry, his use of archaism, of foreign tongues, et cetera, all require
> readers
>  to have a certain kind of knowledge, or at least it requires of them a
>  willingness to expend considerable effort in looking things up if they do not
>  have that knowledge firsthand from their own reading or experience.  The
> Cantos
>  are not intended for "the casual reader". If Robert were to replace the
> phrase
>  "the academic" with "the serious reader" wouldn't his statement have a grain
> of
>  truth?
>  Tim Romano
>   >>
 
-- 
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