For all you would-be SF authors (like me), here’s a guide. (nabbed from BoingBoing)
Category: BOOKS & AUTHORS
Ezra Pound Update
If you can’t see the lengthy update I posted tonight regarding our discussions of Pound, and my own thoughts on the Cantos we’ve studied so far (Nos. I – VIII), it’s because you’re not signed in. Users who have signed up — a quick, free process — can see the big posts on Pound. Others can’t. Most readers probably will be grateful for this effective omission, but for those interested, sign up: it’ll take you but a minute, and you’ll get hours worth of my work for free!
Early Thoughts on Pound
I find that in reading Ezra Pound, the joy I receive is not a simple, pure joy. It is not like hearing a candence finally sliding into resolution at the end of a melodic line, nor the perfectness of a set of angles in a Kandinsky, nor is it the brilliance of a single turn of phrase or moment in a novel. The pleasure I find in Pound is somewhat more like the pleasure one finds in a good, serious Scotch that costs too much for one to enjoy it too often. There are these layers, these faint particles of …
The Music of Ezra Pound
With samples. I’m not kidding. And as much as I like Pound, some of this stuff ain’t so hot. (Though some of it’s actually bad for a barely trained musician.) Not any example of musical modernism, but interesting enough, some of it.
Intense Studies And Sneezing
For some reason, I woke today with a serious, uglyfaced cold. I feel like crap. Sneezing, sniffling, the odd ache: it’s all there. I dread waking up tomorrow, and worse, I dread my 14-hour day on Tuesday. But anyway, I decided to stay at home all day, and decided to make a productive study-day out of it. Would that I had studied more: I could perhaps have finished my current Korean study book and moved on to the next. Alas, I studied only Ezra Pound, Cantos IV – VIII. We discussed Cantos I-III last week, on Wednesday, and a lot …
Ezra Pound and the Occult
This is a somewhat incomplete paper and at points the author makes a few claims I’d say constitute “a stretch”, but it’s still worth a look and linking up to the things I’m interested in Pound, anyway. More on Pound coming soon.
Poems on Hangeul
Myung Mi Kim is a Korean-American poet, and you can hear her read poems about some of the various consonants in the Korean language. This is a link from the previously mentioned Factory School link I put up a few days ago. I think she gets the names of a couple of consonants wrong, by the way, but I’ve only listened once. Anyone notice this?
Stash Of Poetry Audio
We had our first discussion of The Cantos today — spanning Cantos I-III, and while I haven’t time to write about all we discussed today — I’ll try to get to it tomorrow — I think this link from Jason was very much worth sharing. It’s the Factory School’s Poetry and Literature Digital Audio Archive, and not only has it a big collection of Pound audio, but also audio from all kinds of other poets. If you’re into poetry, it’s a link to check out.
Sordello
Okay, six pages in, I think I know why Robert Browning’s Sordello was such a massive, career-destroying failure, and why it was so important for Ezra Pound that he mentioned it in his second Canto.
Poetry Reading in Jeonju
Lime called me this afternoon with some news. A co-worker, Jason, and I had asked her about whether poetry readings of the sort we’re familiar with back in the West happen in Korea. She said she didn’t know of any such venues or regular readings, but said she’d keep her eyes open for us. As part of the local traditional culture festival, there was a reading held at the top of a hill. It featured, according to Lime, some of the major voices in contemporary Korean poetry, all people from Jeollabuk-do. And before I give my honest impressions, I want …