GAINING ANOTHER POUND

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“Aware of the great environmental changes going on around him, the serious artist, according to Pound, sees the primary end of his art in the creative exploration of his ordinarily invisible environmnent. He invents new artistic means such as the ‘image’ and the ‘ideogram;’ means, that is, which permit the creation of exploratory anti-environments while at the same time involving the reader in an act of co-creation, thus actively providing him with an indespensible perceptual and mental training.” Nänny, Max. Ezra Pound: Poetics for an Electric Age (Bern: Francke, 1973)

 Interestingly enough, I’m intruigued by Nänny’s view that Pound was writing to/from/about/through the lens of being in the electric age. For the most part, his radical view of an oral modern culture in the writings of Pound are informed by the controversial ideas put forth by Marshall McLuhan. I must admit though, it makes sense to me so far that we incorporate our present environment within the structures of those previously learnt forms, but then again, I have yet to finish the book. So maybe what makes sense today will be nonsensical tomorrow, just in a different form (if that makes sense).

A POUND A DAY:

Day Three

 “Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.” –Ezra Pound

4 thoughts on “GAINING ANOTHER POUND”

  2. B: I agree, although I’m not certain that “image” is a “new artistic means” invented by Pound. That seems like such a bold statement.

  3. Here’s a question.

    Do you think there has ever been “an age” when there has NOT been environmental change?

    If so, then when? And what were artists doing?

  4. Hey Sznn: Probably yes, and probably no. I suppose it would depend on the age of life, and the life of the age. As “ages” go they seem to stretch long enough to demand a change do they not?

    I think all artists react similarly to the artists that came before them, unless someone is completely isolated in their environment. Has that ever happened, where an artist has been cut-off from culture? If so, then how were they able to produce their imaginative work/art? Is it even possible?

    Without reading, are we able to write?

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