(urth) Thecla's "Identity"

Marc Aramini marcaramini at yahoo.com
Fri Apr 5 10:49:22 PDT 2013


I agree with Ross that Wolfe is profoundly modernist.  Pound was certainly a fascist; I will have to research his spiritual proclivities. There is a kind of very benevolent authoritarianism in much spiritual philosophy that I think influences Wolfe at least marginally as well. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 5, 2013, at 10:35 AM, Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com> wrote:

> That's interesting.  Do we know that Eliot, Pound, and Tate inspired Wolfe?  And was Pound Catholic?
>  
> Jerry Friedman
> 
> From: Ross Arlen Tieken <ross.a.tieken at gmail.com>
> To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net> 
> Sent: Friday, April 5, 2013 10:58 AM
> Subject: Re: (urth) Thecla's "Identity"
> 
> New Criticism is also appropriate because Wolfe, while primarily inspired by Borges, is also inspired by the Catholic English writing in the 1930's to the 1960's--Tolkien, Eliot, Pound, Tate, etc.-- Modernist-Traditionalist writers, a tradition in which I think Wolfe has a prominent place. The New Criticism was supposed to encourage and analyze this type of writing. "Meaning is reconstruction rather than deconstruction" is actually a beautiful little summary of why this is so. Remember that modernism is not postmodernism (although they are in close relation), and Wolfe is definitely a modernist writer.
> 
> R
> 
> On Apr 5, 2013, at 11:42 AM, Marc Aramini wrote:
> 
>> I agree- new criticism (and historical criticism for valid context most of the time) are the most sound and applicable techniques.
>> 
>> I feel like the new critical approach would get the most out of Wolfe- meaning is reconstruction rather than deconstruction.  For example, Reading e e cummings "anyone lived in a pretty how town" through that lens makes perfect sense, though words are used outside their normal parts of speech- meaning is reinforced rather than lost. Much of post modern thought is intentionally losing one self in a haze, getting trapped in the Cartesian circle with no egress in the absence of absolute parameters of signification. 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>> On Apr 5, 2013, at 8:07 AM, DAVID STOCKHOFF <dstockhoff at verizon.net> wrote:
>> They have their own abstract methods, and while they try to make those methods concrete, they also make them inflexible and blind. 
>>> 
>>> I always liked New Criticism because I could get my mind around a "perfect" but "perfectly flawed" structure, where function transcends form. But the French guys always lost me at some point.
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> 
> Ross Arlen Tieken
> Religious Studies
> Rice University
> 
> 
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