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 | | ABC of Reading by Ezra Pound ISBN-10: 9780811201513 ISBN-10: 0-8112-0151-1 ISBN-13: 9780811201513 ISBN-13: 978-0-8112-0151-3 Paperback 1960-06 New Directions Publishing Corporation Find Lowest Price |
Reviews | ||
Literature is news that stays news This small book contains notes for lectures given by the author, and even propositions for student exercises. Ezra Pound's comments on language, poetry, drama and music are very astute and actual. There are two kinds of written language, one based on sound (English), the other based on sight (Chinese). Three chief means charge language with meaning: visual imagination, emotional correlations by sound and speech, and stimulation of associations remained in consciousness in relation to the actual word groups. Most human perceptions date from long time ago, before we were born. Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music. Music rots when it gets too far from dance. The medium of poetry is words; the medium of drama is people, using words. Cinema supersedes a great deal of second-rate narrative and a great deal of theatre. On writing and writers, Ezra Pound is very severe. An author should write in order to teach, to move, to delight (R. Agricola). He should use an efficient, accurate and clear language. He should not use words that contribute nothing to the meaning or that distort from the most important factor of the meaning. The dirtiest book is a manual telling people how to earn money by writing. This book contains excellent comments on his preferred authors: Homer, Chaucer, Villon, Dante, Shakespeare, but also G. Crabbe or W.S. Landor. Some of his examples however, should have been translated (`Ne maeg werigmod wyrde widhstondan'). He stresses rightly the importance of art: `A nation which neglects the perceptions of its artists declines.' A very worth-while read. | ||
ACTUALLY THE HUMBLE (HERE) MR. POUND'S ABC'S OF WRITING Any cursory search of this mighty amazon renders a mountain of manuals written by people who in the main cannot write advising you how to write. This pamphlet, this religious tract, this mighty treatise is the grand-daddy of them all. Before Robert Graves formalized this genre of meta-writing with his Reader over your shoulder, Mr. Pound engendered it powerfully like an Olympian god thundering in his might and wisdom, with an unrepeatable authority and a robust strength. Yet he conceals this literate power and glory like Moses in the bullrushes, as mere reflections and cautious advice about how to read. He frequently states with great caution and trepidation that he could never so presume as to indicate to writers how to write and how we fail miserably to write clearly and well, and yet he then proceeds to do so, and marvelously so, while denying it all the way. Anyone who wishes to write in any way must first read this book. The spotlight review above more than adequately cites this source, and so I shall not trouble you with further citations. The ghost of the great Oscar Wilde, dripping with epigrams, often walks herein. You will be unable to put down this witty and wise book, but will walk or drive with nose shoved between its leaves and a pencil stub in hand, marking every line heavily until you cannot recall which you intended to highlight for further meditation and study, and filling the margins with your own dijointed, incoherent marginalia. In a word, you will write clearly, concisely, with precise use of vocabulary. Poetry is distillery. Who writes less writes more. But that is only my own clumsy and imprecise summaries of what treasures you might find within this book. Everyone who writes must read this book. Everyone who reads literature or other writings must read this book. This is the owner's manual to any other book, to any attempt at writing, including my own and your own and it helps us greatly and generously at every step. | ||
Often Helpful Ezra pound's cryptic, and often arrogant pamphlet about the principles of successful poetry is an interesting insight into the quality of the artist as a learned reader of classical poetry in the lyric form (primarily). Pound does not value any critics who have not produced works of literature themselves, and he promotes individual taste above all else. Never the less, he establishes a basic canon of great lyric poetry, including (above all else) Shakespeare, Homer, Chaucer, and Dante. Pound does not believe you can understand the nature of poetry without being able to read Latin, Greek, French, and Italian, but of course this guidebook is coming from a true fanatic. It is debatable whether or not this book creates more problems than it solves in the domain of interpreting and reading poetry, but it is clearly the aesthetic of a brilliant writer, and it is an essential facet of the modernist perspective. | ||
Maddeningly Brilliant A typical sentence: "Anyone who is too lazy to master the comparatively small glossary necessary to understand Chaucer deserves to be shut out from the reading of good books forever." You may use this quote as a meter for predicting your enjoyment of the book. If you find it amusing and arguable, Pound's ABC of Reading will delight you with its erudite gems. If you are repulsed by the presumption, then give the book a wide berth. Pound sets a standard for basic literacy that few literature scholars can hope to achieve (including mastery of several languages as a pre-requisite to study). Nonetheless, the book is a treasure trove of brilliant and piquant observations, and is itself an exemplar of the crystaline prose Pound extolled. You would be hard-pressed to find an ostentatious or superflous word in the book's entire 200 briskly-moving pages. | ||
Read this book with a pen in your hand Read this book with a pen in your hand because you are going to want to underline the dozens of amazing sentences and little paragraphs, as well as scribble complaints and disparaging comments next to the rash and just plain faulty ones. This book will astonish and anger a thoughtful reader. It is not a coherent essay that moves logically from point to point - it is a jarring, manic kaleidoscope. Since I am a typical American and only understand one language (English, modern) some of this volume was lost to me - but this book is well worth the time you will spend reading it. Highly recommended for all striving writers and people who would like to read more earnestly. | ||