On Tue, 27 Jan 1998, Erin Templeton wrote: > I hardly think that the reason younger scholars and stdents of > literature have "hardly even heard of [Pound]" is because the Cantos aren't > available on the Web. While electronic access might be convenient, it isn't > preventing students and aspiring scholars from reading EP. Perhaps a more > likely reason is his conspicuous absence from the classroom--whether because > his poetry is "too difficult" or because many instructors find his politics > distasteful or inappropriate for the classroom. As an undergraduate, I was > always curious about Pound, but never got the chance to read him. It wasn't > until my second semester of graduate school that I found his work on a > syllabus, and even still, I find that the pre-dominant attitude among > professors and students is one of grudging appreciation--yes, he was an > important figure, but his poetry is difficult to understand and often best > left to interested individuals with lots of free time and additional > references. Availability of texts, in my opinion, isn't the problem--it's > Pound's troubled position within the institution. As another 20-almost-30-nothinger, I'll second Erin's observations. A lot of academics just don't want to deal with Pound, especially when it comes to the politics. Comments I've heard in my academic career (quotations somewhat approximate): "Social credit was an idea Pound got from Wyndham Lewis, who was a fascist." (End of that topic) "Who was that mentor of Eliot's who loved Mussolini?" (meaning Pound). I think Pound, despite his difficulty, can be friendlier to non-academics, especially by way of his often delightfully irreverent prose (I found solace in the ABC of Economics during a bad unemployed period between grad programs). Back to lurk mode. --WC __________________________________________________________________ William Cole <[log in to unmask]> Dept. of English University of Georgia "A sound poetic training is nothing more that the science of being discontented." --Ezra Pound