Tim - that sounds to me like an excellent idea. Of course, if you want to make the Cantos seem easy and clear, you could give them Sordello. Tim Redman wrote: >I teach Pound in our required junior-level "Western Literary Tradition" >course here at the University of Texas at Dallas. The students read The >Odyssey, The Aeneid, The Metamorphoses, and The Inferno. Then they read the >first thirty Cantos. The Cantos are still formidable, but they make a lot >more sense when seen as a continuation of an epic tradition. > >The only change I'm contemplating to that syllabus is taking out Virgil >(since the mini-Aeneid is in Ovid) and adding something by Browning -- >perhaps Men and Women. > >Cheers! > >Tim Redman > >-----Original Message----- >From: - Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine >[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Dirk Johnson >Sent: Friday, January 03, 2003 12:10 PM >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: American studies > > >Sounds like a good plan, Charles -- I think you've really got something >there. I only introduce Pound to people after a lengthy screening >process. But, yes, it works sometimes. > >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" >> >> >>---------- >> >> >> > > > -- Dirk Johnson 676 Geary #407 San Francisco, CA 94102 [log in to unmask] Home: 415-771-7734 Office Direct: 510-208-8200 Office Fax: 510-208-8282