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The elastic retort;: Essays in literature and ideas
Book by Rexroth, Kenneth
280 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1973
About the author
Kenneth Rexroth
205 books111 followersKenneth Rexroth was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist.
He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider himself to be a Beat poet, and disliked the association, he was dubbed the "Father of the Beats" by Time magazine.
Largely self-educated, Rexroth learned several languages and translated poems from Chinese, French, Spanish, and Japanese. He was among the first poets in the United States to explore traditional Japanese poetic themes and forms.
Rexroth died in Santa Barbara, California, on June 6, 1982. He had spent his final years translating Japanese and Chinese women poets, as well as promoting the work of female poets in America and overseas.
He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider himself to be a Beat poet, and disliked the association, he was dubbed the "Father of the Beats" by Time magazine.
Largely self-educated, Rexroth learned several languages and translated poems from Chinese, French, Spanish, and Japanese. He was among the first poets in the United States to explore traditional Japanese poetic themes and forms.
Rexroth died in Santa Barbara, California, on June 6, 1982. He had spent his final years translating Japanese and Chinese women poets, as well as promoting the work of female poets in America and overseas.
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January 7, 2019
Shame on me! I knew about Rexroth slightly better than casually, but until now I never bothered to scare up any of his criticism. The book rates as strongly as it does for the section on Japan alone (my forte), but is well worth it for most everything sandwiched between its covers. Note that this doesn't mean I agree with all he says, but his cases are made with great élan and depth of erudition for his subject. I think he rather misses the point of "Fires On The Plain", for instance; the novel has never struck me as being an "anti-war" story, but a more hallucinatory and personal story that just happens to use war horrors as the road of excess to its particular palace of wisdom. But he makes that point by way of a defense of Ford Madox Ford that only makes me appreciate that author all the more, so it's not like I think he's being foolish. But I'm totally with Rexroth on how overrated Yukio Mishima is, and how Mishima rewriting Nō for a modern audience only yields "1921 Little Theater corn", and doesn't make him into Cocteau or Sartre -- or even Jean Anouilh, for that matter.
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