[lbo-talk] Off the deep end in Egypt

Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
Mon Apr 14 16:45:06 PDT 2014


On Apr 14, 2014, at 7:13 PM, "Carl G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu> wrote:


> A silly (and quite destructive) dismissal, precluding a just appraisal of one of the most important 20th century poets in English
>
>> Gertrude Stein on Ezra Pound: "A village
>> explainer, which is nice if you're a village, and if not, not."

I like a lot of Pound's stuff myself, though I don't do appraisals and don't care about importance.

But old Gertrude was dead right about Pound's weak spot: the autodidact's preening vanity and fatal underestimation of his listeners.

Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net



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