In the Sunday Aug. 29 Book World section of the Washington Post
(supposedly the second 'best' newspaper in the country) Carolyn See
published a piece describing her accompaniment of William Espey to visit
Mary de Rachewiltz at Schloss Brunnenberg. In the course of her one page
report See says idiotic things, damns with shallow praise, and
apparently cribs off Espey for a bare bones Pound chronology, but time
here only allows me to recount her most insipid paragraph.
See states, "Ezra Pound. Mary's father. For years one of the greatest
poets of the 20th century, and now that T.S Eliot's stock is going down,
maybe the greatest. On the other hand, who now reads the Cantos? Who now
cares to decipher the dense, encoded, atonal poetry that changes
languages - English, Latin, Greek, Chinese - as whimsically as a
disaffected teenager pressing the TV remote."
Apparently it has never occurred to the shallow Ms. See to consult the
numerous critical works (published by many on this list) that would
relieve her of the responsibility of approaching "the greatest poet of
the 20th century" head on. I've mentioned to the Post on several
occasions when they have slandered E.P. that he is the number one
selling poet in my bookstore and among the best understood because there
is much there worth understanding as opposed to the 'accessible' navel
pickers the Post prefers e.g. Robert Hass' weekly poetry box.
Most of the rest of the article just suffers from the air-headed tone of
standard journalese.- Carlo Parcelli
If you would like to tell Ms. See who reads E.P. write:
Book World
Nina King editor and/or Carlyn See
Washington Post
1150 15th St. NW
Washington, DC 20071
 
or contact them online.
"disaffected teenager". Give me a break.