"Undress in public", indeed ! [My yardstick phrase for the genesis of an oeuvre.] I don't want to scare even the earthworms ! But your helpful letter spurs me on - not to undress but to open the Iron Curtain of privacy a crack.

Professor Eric N.W.Mottram, Department of English Language and Literature,
KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON (KQC), University of London, Strand, LONDON WC2R 2LS
Telephone: 01-836 5454
October 25, 1989

Dear Wignesan,

Thanks for your letter. First - I have NOT been resisting the subject, as you put it [I had asked EM to write an essay on "poïétics" for inclusion in my Journal of Comparative Poîétics, Vol. 1; N°1] - on the contrary, I have been redefining it ! But I will do anything you wish, except conforming to some idea of "genesis" that I cannot agree to... I'll try to work out a way of describing the onset of ONE poem - so hang on !

Term is on - with a vengeance: we are in the year of overlap between two courses and therefore have to teach them both. Hell, actually, but very exciting.

"Undress in public", indeed ! [My yardstick phrase for the genesis of an oeuvre.] I don't want to scare even the earthworms ! But your helpful letter spurs me on - not to undress but to open the Iron Curtain of privacy a crack.

I feel ashamed about one thing: I did not realize you did not have my books - somehow I thought you did. Apologies for the trouble you had in getting them...
Thank you the Talus [Peace Projects and Brief Novels] launch reading went well - a full house and some copies sold - the embarrassment was that the other poet - a good friend and ex-student - is so often and so obviously practically copying my poetic methods ! How to tell him ?

Congratulations on the Madras job [ I obtained the necessary permission from the CNRS in Paris, my employers, to work on a translation, with commentary, of one of the oldest Tamil manuscripts: TOLKAPPIYAM, which later I had to turn down owing to the Indian Government's insistence that I work under the supervision of a professor at Madras University.] - I do hope the stupid authorities don't become any more awkward. The financial side of the issues does [underlined] look a bit tricky - do be careful...

I too enjoyed seeing you, after all these years [22 years] - it's refreshing not to have to have blockages with someone as eager and keen as yourself.

The summer went well - essays on Faulkner, DeLillo, Pound/Whitman/American epic, and a weird piece on yours truly in New York 1965/66 - my first memoir thing - at the request of a new journal here... odd, to read about oneself all those years ago.

Now I have a conference paper to write on the arts side of things in "The American Presence in Britain" (November 10/11 - so it's gruesomely near...).

And wonderful walks, swims and climbs in Wales, Cumbria and Norfolk.

Best wishes -

Eric

(c) T. Wignesan - Paris, 1989-2023