A paradox: Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and Louis Zukofsky all wrote their central works to be 'masterpieces'. And yet these writings are so hard to read. This work shows how the inaccessibility of their writing reveals the conflict between the goals of social relevance and literary innovation.
"Most poets define poetry by creating it. Bob Perelman creates it by defining it, and is thus one step ahead of all the other poets under the sun, one step closer to colliding with Zeno's vanishing point, to merging coyote with road runner, to winning the hand."--John Ashbery
"Profound, subtle, and wonderfully written--this is a book from which anyone interested in the twentieth century can learn."--Marjorie Perloff
