On Sat, 24 Jan 1998 22:09:21 -0600 wrote... >> And yet at the same time, it seems to me that some of the experiments in expressive form that Pound undertook are for the first time becoming mainstream. The movie Pulp Fiction, for example, works through the disruption of temporal reality and through provacative juxtapositions of images suggestive of meaning. Twenty years ago, no one would have been able to accept such a movie. As a culture, we are moving towards different receptions of reality, and while some of those are frightening, there is, I think, something positive afoot when popular culture is able to engage information that requires the swift perception of distant relations. And this is Poundian, refined, made pop. It is also illustrative of some kind of cultural effect, one that I think suggests that Pound will become an acknowledged grand daddy. I know my local Borders bookstore stocks more Pound books now than it did seven years ago. Even critical works on Pound are there, from Kenner to Peter Makin. Nor should we pass over the fact that as American culture comes more and more under the influence of Asian culture, and perhaps, specifically Chinese culture, those writers who were pushing the connection early will get an honored place. That said, probably few people will ever read much Pound. Isn't there a story in one of the biographies about Olga Rudge in the 60s, saying to some of the flower children who had camped out in front of their house in Venice that if any of them could recite just one line from the poetry, they could meet Pound? The guy is for rock climbers. What do you think: can it be that in ten >>years our kids are going to regard Pound the way young people regarded Pope >>in, say, 1808, and for the same intelligible and not serious reasons? >> > >I don't think it will take ten years. My son is sixteen, writes fiction and >poetry, reads Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Burroughs. He thinks Pound is a >fossil. Or worse, a crazy boring old Fascist fossil that his dad reads. But >even factoring out the generational static between us, I think Pound will >continue to be an acquired taste as the years roll along. I notice that my >son and his friends favor **short** poems and fiction. I think perhaps >television and MTV, digested by my son in large quantities, may have worked >against EP (or Stevens, or even Whitman) in this regard. > >And strangely enough, they all loathe language poetry... > >Joe Ahearn >Rancho Loco Press >Dallas > > > > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > > > Robert E. Kibler Department of English University of Minnesota [log in to unmask] fortunatus et ille, deos qui novit agrestis, Panaque Silvanumque senem Nymphasque sorores.