The Trouble with Genius: Reading Pound, Joyce, Stein, and Zukofsky

by Bob Perelman

A Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and Louis Zukofsky all wrote their central works to be "masterpieces," synoptic views of the world that would change the very consciousness of the public. And yet these writings are so hard to read that instead of producing social change, they have produced critical industries dedicated to decoding them.

In new, provocative readings of these demanding authors, Bob Perelman shows how the inaccessibility of their writing reveals the conflict between the goals of social relevance and literary innovation. As self-proclaimed geniuses, they used language in new ways that were inevitably incomprehensible to the large audiences that they sought to instruct, change, or simply dazzle. By seeing genius as a role that is simultaneously social and poetic, Perelman reads the difficulty of their works as rooted in the cultural relationship between authors and their readers.

Perelman's brilliant analysis offers scholars new insight and opens these works to readers who have been frustrated by their difficulty. The Trouble with Genius is one poet's passionate attempt to make sense of the stylistic and political challenge of these modernists and to find, although not uncritically, the value of their work for readers and writers today.

Genres: Nonfiction

276 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 1994

Reviews

[Liam Guilar · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Perelman's brilliant analysis offers scholars new insight and opens these works to readers who have been frustrated by their difficulty. "The Trouble with Genius" is one poet's passionate attempt to make sense of the stylistic and political challenge of these modernists and to find, although not uncritically, the value of their work for readers and writers today"

I suppose it is the job of Blurb writers to make claims, but this one seems to be describing an alternative version of this book in an alternative reality. Given the vast literature on Pound and Joyce it is unlikely that anything in this book offers specialists "new Insight" and given the way the book is written I doubt the "readers" frustrated by the 'Cantos' or 'A' are going to come away any the wiser.

It's an odd book: readable and provocative. The chapter on Pound, which I have now reread several times, is even handed and provocative, though i suspect his declaration that Bunting's Alps are now ignored except by specialists is a bit of wishful thinking...the chapter on Joyce is flawed by Perelman's refusal or inability to admit people do read Ulysses who are neither would be writers nor academics..and and why Zukofsky is in such company (unless to bolster the argument that these writers are difficult and not read by non specialists) is an interesting question.
And given the Poetry Perelman writes, I'm not sure I follow the arguments about "literature that requires specialist readers", though to be honest, one of the reasons I keep rereading this book is that I'm not sure what his overall argument is.

[Humphrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book. Innovative look at these writers.

[Ash Ponders · Rating 2 out of 5]

Woefully difficult for my atrophied brain.