On Poets and Others

by Octavio Paz (Translation)

The Nobel Prize–winning poet and man of letters Octavio Paz was also a brilliant reader of other writers, and this book selects his best critical essays from over three decades. In the sixteen pieces collected here, Paz discusses a wide range of poets and writers, both American and international, from Robert Frost and Walt Whitman to William Carlos Williams; from Fyodor Dostoevsky to Luis Buñuel to Alexander Solzhenitsyn; and from Charles Baudelaire to Jean-Paul Sartre, André Breton, and Henri Michaux.

Paz writes, “I believe that a writer’s attitude to language should be that of a fidelity and, at the same time, a lack of respect for the beloved object. Veneration and transgression.” When this original thinker meets these writers, each essay is an adventure of the mind.

Genres: Poetry, Essays, Literary Criticism, Literature, Nonfiction, Criticism

242 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1986

About the author

Octavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature ("for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity.")

Reviews

[Wyatt Reu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paz is undeniably brilliant. At times his prose can be more opaque than what could be expected from an essayist - Paz never seems to put aside his sensibilities as a poet to get 'a point' across. Which is to say that his essays are not op-eds, nor do they shy away from judgment and argument. They are in reference, of course, to the diverse subjects of Paz's intellect: from Christianity to Marxism, to film, to drugs, to love, to history and time. But moreso, I've found that Paz always writes in reference to himself - to his own notions of what is essential, good, beautiful, just. A 'poetic' sentence takes us out of an argument and returns us to a man. It takes us out of a cockfight of right and wrong and allows us to breathe, to think about the significance of what we read - not to our ideas per-say but to our life.

[Daniel Klawitter · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A modern superstition is that of art as transgression. The opposite seems to me more exact: art transforms disturbance into a new regularity."

"Rhyme is not a rupture but a binding agent."

"The poet works on the nostalgia which the signified feels for the signifier."

[Satish Bagal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although poetry is not my forte and and have always been wary of my own capabilities of even writing on poets and poetry I have always found myself making Octavio Paz an exception. I have, therefore, written a longish review of "On Poets and Others" as a blog on my blog-post.

I am giving below a link to my blog that speaks on Octavio Paz and his "On Poets and Others".

http://satish-bagal.blogspot.in/2012/...


Satish Bagal

[Tammy Marie Jacintho · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone who wants to know the intimate details of a brilliant mind. These essays on Frost, Whitman, Williams, Sartre and so many others, extend the literature. I fell in love with Paz from page one and that admiration only deepened.

[Ash Ponders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paz's mind is keener than so many. Keener, likely, than mine. Many times I was reduced to diagramming his statements, for a hint at his underlying meaning. Don't expect this to be an easy read, but except that if you put in the work, it will be an edifying read.

[mano manoj]

pure....sheer....poetry in prose

writers should read this on the art of writing.....

[Roberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good traslate. I read the same voice like spanish. The Novel prize is in home again.

[Matt Morris]

Read reviews of this & other books at https://miscmss.blogspot.com/2017/09/...