Ezra Pound recordings

The extraordinary PENNsound site has recently added an extraordinary trove of Ezra Pound recordings, along with an essay by Richard Sieburth, “The Sound of Pound: A Listerner’s Guide“. One of the most interesting aspects of Sieburth’s essay, to me, was his description of Pound’s encounter with the L’abbé Jean-Pierre Rousselot.

From this piece at Language Log, which has some interesting information about phonetic studies, their relevance to poetry, kymograph, and the school days of Pound. Take a look!

NY Times Sunday Book Review

Laila Lalami, whose literary/political blog I’ve followed nearly since it’s formation, and who I’ve referred to numerous times since the formation of my own, has had her debut novel, Secret Son, reviewed in The New York Times. I am very glad for this, as I’ve grown to intensely appreciate Laila’s effort to bring consciousness to the States. As a student of English Literature myself, and aspiring writer, I know this kind of coverage is vital to her exposure among wider audiences. I wish her the best and look forward to meeting her again, perhaps in two or three years (she claims to be a very slow, meticulous writer) after the publication of another great book.

Lalami and Luxenberg

Two online broadcasts worth checking out:

Steve Luxenberg on NPR’s All Things Considered

Laila Lalami with Kojo Nnamdi on WAMU

My thanks to the lovely Ms. Lalami for giving me a shout on her blog. It’s inspiriting to know that I at least lingered in the recollections of such a talented published writer.

Living St. Louis Video – T.S. Eliot

Originally broadcast 10/20/08:

Patrick Murphy tours the childhood home of the great 20th century writer, T.S. Eliot, and explains St. Louis’ impact on the author’s poetry. Eliot left St. Louis, moving first to the east coast and then to England. The T.S. Elliot Society recently celebrated Eliot’s 120th birthday.

Guilt-ridden?

BBC reports that two out of three people admitted lying about reading a book to impress someone. The online survey included over 1300 people. Orwell’s classic eclipsed all, with Tolstoy’s War and Peace not finishing far behind. To my dismay, 24% admitted lying about reading The Bible. The Bible? Apparantly a small portion of the UK uphold a different defintion of the word impress than I. The Bible? I guess I can find it slightly impressive for it’s no easy armchair read. And, in fact, it contains really good literature. But I’d prefer one of those ‘Atheist Guides to a Moral Life’  or something. It’s realistically uplifting. But who am I to judge? I’m a literature major. And for the record, I’ve lied about reading Dostoevsky before. Or rather, I’ve made pre-mature comments about The Brothers K.

Secret Son Book Trailer

Laila Lalami’s publisher has set up a book trailer for Secret Son. Have a look:

There’s a link to Laila’s website on my blogroll for anyone who’s interested. Formerly known as “Moorish Girl” Laila has published literary criticism and political essays in The Boston Globe, Boston Review, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. Her first commerical publication, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, was released in the fall of 2007. You can pre-order her first novel, Secret Son by clicking the link above.

JK Rowling, French Knight

Potter author JK Rowling received France’s highest civilian award on Wednesday–the Legion of Honor. Now the second member of the Rowling family to be conferred honorary knights of France (her French great grandfather had been made a knight of the Legion of Honor for his courage in World War 1), Rowling joins Steven Spielberg and Barbra Streisand as the only foreign recipients of the honour.

Personally I’m not in the least enticed by Potter-mania. I think it’s good that children are reading more voraciously (if that term can even be applied in the modern world’s dismal reading rates) but it’s puerile and ridiculous that such second-rate literature gets this much attention. I could name twenty-five plus reader-friendly individuals that are just as dependable at producing literary works, but fail to obtain any commercial success. Suffice to say genre isn’t an issue. But perhaps it’s a good thing that my favorite writers remain obscure. I sleep better that way.

Peace.

“Authoritarianism in Translation”

Evan Osnos of the New Yorker files a piece on the progression of foreign translations in Chinese literary circles. The one-party system in China has a set of restrictions that prohibits certain economic appendages, making China’s seventeen firms involved in literary translations substantially alleviating (the translation firms have increased their share of GDP by ten percent). An excerpt from the article (if only I knew something about custom fields, I could insert a pull quote):

“I mention this not to argue that China is a literary paradise, but rather to point out how inventive and ambitious Chinese translators and publishers have been able to carve out viable space within the restrictions imposed by the one-party state. Go into any large Chinese bookstore and you are likely to see readers sitting in the aisles, scouring foreign books in translation, which they might not be able to afford. “

I’m currently reading ABC of Reading by Ezra Pound. I think he’d be proud to hear these factoids. I’m still not willing to read The Inferno in Italian but the man had a grasp on language that remains unfathomable to me. His collective translations still mean a lot to Chinese literary scholars. This newly discovered procreation is perhaps a product of that very 20th century contribution.

‘Howl’ Of Ginsberg

Ginsberg reading his poetry in Washington Square, August 1966.

The Beat poet famous for 16th century hallmarks, open homosexuality, and the Black Mountains is said to have written at least 3,700 letters in his lifetime. “The Letters of Allen Ginsberg” edited by Bill Morgan contain 165 of those letters. I don’t think anyone can deny the interest in reading poetic missives, especially Ginsberg because of his candidness. I’ve read some of the material in Temple’s library but Paley doesn’t juxtapose like Morgan here. The book of letters is fascinating and I highly recommend investing into it; or at least going to Barnes and Noble to indulge yourself. An article written by James Cambell of the New York Times portrays some of the madness and gladness of Ginsberg, and the riprap that armours the Black Mountain streams. The beautiful poem ‘Howl’ is a dedication to, patient of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Carl Soloman.

Philosophy From The Father of American Literature

I just read something interesting and thought I’d share it with you. It’s an Orwellian credo surely, and one of antiquity.

“We speak of nature; it is folly; there is no such thing as nature; what we call by that misleading name is merely heredity and training. We have no thoughts of our own; they are transmitted to us, trained into us. All that is original in us, and therefore fairly credible or discreditable to us, can be covered up and hidden by the point of a cambric needle, all the rest being atoms contributed by, and inherited from, a procession of ancestors that sketches back a million years to the Adam-clam or grasshopper or monkey from whom our race has been so tediously and ostentatiously and unprofitably developed.”

-Mark Twain from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court