Ezra Pound discussion. Has anyone here read The Cantos of Ezra Pound?

>>7530984
Parts. Maybe 30 out of the 120. Why?

>>7530989
What did you think of it? Did you like it?

>>7531005
I thought it was bad. A mess. There were good fantastic moments, but then there were hours of something very different.

>>7531013
fantastic moments*

>>7531013
Would you recommend going into it to find those good moments?

>>7531022
I wouldn't recommend buying it. Borrow it in the library or search online for the parts that begin with: And Kung walked forth (something like that), and What thou lovest best shall not be reft from thee, and Let those I love try to forgive what I have made.

>>7531025
Cont.
But then those parts may give you a wrong impression (being really good and beautiful). So borrow it from your library and see how chaotic and hermetic the rest of it is.

>>7531026
Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely try and find and read those poems.

I think that in order to appreciate Pound you really should read up something about his poetics first. It's going to be a jumbled mess in any case but at least one should try and understand why it is so.

>>7531041
Would you recommend a good starting place to start with Pound?

>>7531047
Honestly I have only a passing familiarity with it. I know there's an Introduction to Ezra Pound by Ira Nadel (one of the leading scholars on modernists), but I guess if you go to the library they're should have something.

>>7531080
Thanks, I'll check it out.

>>7531088
I don't you should, or more precisely, I think you should be vary of commentary. Personally, I prefer going into the book without pre-conceived (or in this case pre-received) ideas.
First the book, then the commentary on the book.

I don't think Ezra is really worth getting that deeply into. Lastly, I would say that you might consider reading Lustra instead of the Cantos. I think they're better.

You can find them online. Just google: Lustra pdf.

>>7531466
I don't think you can go into something like the Cantos without some prepwork, come out saying it was "chaotic and hermetic" (i don't know if you are the same anon from earlier in the thread), and expect to be taken seriously.
I'm no Pound fanboy, but I think that lit should at the very least be contextualized, or you end up with nothing more than memery.

>>7531550
But the author himself (and others) granted that The Cantos are kind of an magnificent failure (and chaotic and hermetic).

Does La Comedia "need prepwork", well it would certainly enhance the "understanding" at some points. But I don't think "understanding" is so very central.
As Pound said: "Feeling is all that stays."

>>7531550
Lastly, why should I, in your own words, take you seriously? You yourself do not seem to have read what you recommend. What do you mean by prepwork? What books have you read that greatly magnified your understanding and enjoyment of The Cantos?

Dont let /lit/ fool you. The work is always more important than the commentary. The feeling, the experience of is always more important than "getting it". Even if getting it at times makes the whole thing more pleasant.

>>7531598
>>7531604

I haven't read that book by Nadel but I don't have my syllabus at hand from when I studied Pound and I googled something. At least I'm not the one claiming that the Cantos are "just bad". (Pound retracted some of his political wiewpoints expressed in the Cantos, true, but the poetics is another matter).

If you approach something such as the Cantos or the Commedia without learning something around what was going on around the work, and do it "for enjoyment", all you can get out of them are superficial opinions of taste. But of course, some anon on /lit/ said that the Cantos are bad, I should just listen to him.

>>7531790
I never said they were just bad. Not even something that resembles those words. From where did you get them?
Ezra granted that it was a flawed work, and not just politically.

I have read commentary on The Cantos. It just made me like them less. Again, I'm not saying that I don't like them, some of them I like a great deal.

You don't just get "superficial opinions of taste". You get enjoyment. Deep, meaningful enjoyment.
From commentary you may get more.

Just to get it clear, do you think that was is "around the work" is more important than the experience of the work.

Please don't be so angry. This is an internet argument/discussion. There is nothing to be lost.