Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 ? April 19, 1998) was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature. Paz was born to Octavio Paz Solórzano and Josefina Lozano. His father was an active supporter of the Revolution against the Diaz regime. Paz was raised in the village of Mixcoac, (now a part of Mexico City) by his mother Josefina (daughter of Spanish immigrants), his aunt Amalia Paz, and his paternal grandfather, Ireneo Paz, a liberal intellectual, novelist, publisher and former supporter of President Porfirio Díaz. He studied at Colegio Williams. Because of his family's public support of Emiliano Zapata they were forced into exile after Zapata's assassination. They served their exile in the United States. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Cincuenta annos de poesia
"Libertad bajo palabra" es una coleccion de textos publicados alo largo de la vida del poeta. Un gran libro. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Exploring poetry through prose
"The Other Voice: Essays on Modern Poetry" is an admirable prose work by Octavio Paz of Mexico. As the book's subtitle indicates, these essays explore various aspects of the world of poetry. The book has been translated from Spanish into a very readable English by Helen Lane.

Paz considers the work and legacies of many poets: Dante, Milton, Whitman, Sor Juana, Eliot, Baudelaire, and others. He questions the concepts of modernity and postmodernity, and considers various interrelated avant-garde literary movements: Futurism, Dadaism, Simultaneism, etc. He also reflects on the relationship between his own poetry and prose writings.

Along the way are some marvelous nuggets, such as his definition of a poem: "a thing made of words, for the purpose of containing and secreting a substance that is impalpable, resistant to definition, and called poetry" (from "The Few and the Many"). The book ends on a prophetic note of hope: ". . . I can say, with a modicum of certainty, that as long as there are people, there will be poetry." I recommend "The Other Voice" to all those interested in Latin American literature or poetry in general. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES
The very concept of grammar - a system in which language can be fixed, structured and therefore transformed - is one of the great achievements of Indian culture. In the past 50 years philosophers and linguists havedevoted enormous intellectual energies to the investigation of how theconcept was developed among the thinkers of ancient India, for whom theidea became a central problem in their philosophical tradition. Waslanguage, our faculty for naming objects, given by God or did man inventit, either on his own or with powers borrowed from the divine realm?

Through a species of time-space journey akin to Hanuman's, Octavio Pazexplores this dilemma: ''What is language made of,'' he asks, ''and mostimportant of all, is it already made, or is it something that isperpetually in the making?'' ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Vuelta
Este Libro de Octavio Paz, es excelente; aunque a veces nos confunde por el uso de un lenguage que muy pocas personas cononemos, nos lleva a un viaje en donde el hombre se enfrenta a si mismo en una lucha incesante por la busqueda de si mismo, su identidad.Ademas, muestra tambien como un ser humano esta siempre en una lucha incesante por descubrir, por saber, y al final nos pone a pensar, Fue o no Fue?,lo hice o no lo hice? y mientras estamos en esa continua exploracion de ese camino en la que los protagonistas solosomos nosotros mismos, de pronto nos damos cuenta de que nuestra vida no ha dejado de dar vueltas, y nos encontramos en el mismo citio, pero con una idea diferente, anoramos lo pasado, nos da nostalgia, nos hace vivir nuevamente; Asi, paz nos ofrece nuevamente, emprender una nueva "vuelta" a lo que llamamos vida, existencia.

PD,
Disculpe Ud. la gramatica, este sistema no cuenta con los elementos necesarios para hacer una revision gramatical y correcta.

The everyday fire
"Every poem is fire" There are some writters whose work gives light to his time and whose destiny is to survive to his contemporaries. Octavio Paz has been one of them. His poetry knows how to revive in frontof new eyes. In this book the images fly all around. In "Vuelta"the reader find himself and run on the Octavio Paz's birds. ... Read more

Product Description
Octavio Paz is widely considered one of Mexico's most important literary and cultural figures. He is thought to have captured the complexities of Mexican society and culture as well as any writer in history. Learn more about the 1990 winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.

This title, Octavio Paz, part of Chelsea House Publishers’ Modern Critical Views series, examines the major works of Octavio Paz through full-length critical essays by expert literary critics. In addition, this title features a short biography on Octavio Paz, a chronology of the author’s life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University. ... Read more

Product Description
############################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################### ... Read more

Product Description
estas páginas se reúne Piedra del sol, poema fundamental de la literatura mexicana contemporánea, con un grupo de textos expresamente seleccionados para esta edición por Octavio Paz, uno de los autores más importantes del siglo XX. ... Read more

Product Description

Octavio Paz is one of the most recognized of Latin American writers. His essays offer a sophisticated critique of global modernity. Although his work has advanced many of the arguments that orient our contemporary debates in the social sciences and in philosophy, it has hardly ever been seriously considered within theses disciplines. This volume suggests that this may have been a mistake. Its authors indicate ways in which Paz’ essays can be read as substantial contributions to contemporary debates in various fields. They aim to present to a non-Spanish speaking audience some of the discussions about Paz’ offerings to the ongoing debates. The book also wants to make a clear statement: a critique of our contemporary modernity must go hand in hand with a non-exclusive intercultural understanding of Humanism.

Customer Reviews (2)

Absolutely brilliant.
Octavio Paz, A Draft of Shadows (New Directions, 1979)

I am kicking myself for having had this book in my collection for long enough that I don�t remember buying it and not getting around to it until now. Paz is the most exciting poet I�ve run across since discovering the work of Ira Sadoff five years ago. His work, more than capably translated here by Eliot Weinberger (with a few translations from others thrown in for good measure), is a perfect blend of the art and craft of poetry. It is also the finest overtly political work I have read since Aime Cesaire last put pen to paper. Paz understands that if the poetry is good enough, the message of the poetry will come out on its own, something nine hundred ninety-nine out of every thousand political poets never grasp. Those who would dispute it need only read the title poem here and hold it up against the best works by inferior political poets. The difference is stunning, and obvious.

When Paz won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1990, the committee stated that his writing was characterized by �sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity.� Indeed. This is poetry the way it�s meant to be. **** 1/2

One of the best books of Spanish poetry
Excelent translation. Like "Eagle or Sun", "A Draft orShadows" is the best Paz's poetry. Without doubt, some of the bestpoems I have ever read. East and West, Water and Stone, White and Black...encounter each other... on the other side. ... Read more

Product Description
Octavio Paz (1914-1998), the eminent Mexican poet and critic, attempted to evaluate the neglected role of poetry in the twentieth century in terms of a liberating, semi-religious vocation. Jason Wilson, in this study, approaches Paz's poetics through his close relationship with André Breton (1896-1966), the surrealist leader. This is a 'spiritual biography' of a poet-thinker (Paz); a study of a fertile relationship (Paz and Breton); a re-evaluation of surrealism itself and, finally, a coping with those acute problems that all poets and readers of poetry must face in an age lacking an acceptable cultural tradition: why write? What is a poem? Who are the genuine poets? Who am I? Wilson analyses Paz's reaction to these related concerns in the poet's examination of 'the values of poetry' in terms of a liberating poetics. ... Read more

Product Description
from "Mutra" (1952) to recent Sanskrit adaptations ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Poetic Ambassador
A Tale of Two Gardens is a collection of poems dealing with Nobel laureate Octavio Paz relationship with the great nation of India.He made many trips there over the years.Paz was also the Mexican ambassador to India. (He resigned the position in 1968 to protest government assault onprotesters.)There were still later sojourns to India afterwards.Mutrais a really strong poem.It is a flower that grows with each subsequentreading.Few cities have ever been so aptly honoured.Another of thepoems I like is The Balcony.Wind From All Compass Points is anotherstandout.The whole collection is a grand achievement.India is the mostenduring civilization on the planet.It is only fitting that one of themost enduring poets of the twentieth century should write a poetic tribute. These poems were written over a period of forty years.The love andpassion Paz feels for Indian culture and peoples is recurrent in thesepoems.This was truly his second home.It was the second garden so tospeak.And from this love of India came a great gift of poetry for therest of the world to read and know.

Sensual and evocative
Once again Octavio Paz expresses his love and passion for India and things Indian but this time through his poetry. They style is fluid, sensual and evocative, add to it a plethora of colorful imageries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A major disjunction
Politically hyper-correct work aspiring to historio-anthropo-philosopho-religio-spiritual final word on the state of the world today, written in a tedious, nebulous style typical of the "intellectual" and academic texts, heavy on the verbiage but sparse of ideas. We are obviously to be shocked by references to selected body parts, but regrettably such references had been around for too long to still have any shock value. Any thoughts which may be present are buried under classroom style erudition, based upon quotations from randomly selected books, not on the expertise of any subject. And to top it all we get a lengthy comparison of Protestant Christianity and Buddhism, based upon the premise that both are religions and both started as a break from existing religion - so there is a conjunction - but then follows a multitude of disjunctions, leading to the final conclusion that perhaps this comparison is rather meaningless. Well, so it is, as one could have seen from the very beginning, so what was the point anyhow?

The leading idea seems to be lamenting the decrepit condition of culture in the Western world. Or it may be an attempt to write a treatise on the importance of rites in the social life of humans. Perhaps it is a meditation on the conflict between the spiritual and material elements in the human nature. I was not able to extract anything substantial from this mass of casually tangled snippets of information on the Tantra, Spanish Baroque, Provencal Troubadours, Taoism, Marxism and Parisian revolt of 1968. Plus, I became quickly fatigued by the abundant repetitions.

Of course I'm aware that Paz is a poet and not an anthropologist, but then why tackle the matter which is beyond the scope of his competence? Perhaps the writing of this book was intended as anther sign of disjunctions prevalent in the West, as Paz tries to assert. Perhaps the nature of Spanish language is so different from the English that the meaning got lost in translation. Fortunately this bookis very short, and one may read it as a document of ideas fashionable at the time of its writing.


... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Happy with Essays!
Really enjoyed the book of essays by Octavio Paz,and the quick service and excellent condition of the book...Excellent insight into Mayan Art, the great Muralists,and Modern Art in Mexico.Much thanks!

Convergence of Topics
I read this book recently uponthe death of Octavio Paz. The mans mind was incredible and he was able to elucidate onsuch disparate themes as philosophy,religion and history. What is incredible is that he manages totie these diverse subjects into a major topic, Mexican Art. The Europeaninfluences on the major Mexican artists is indelible and Paz shows how onecannot exist without it's predecessor. He takes shots at such Mexican iconsasDiego Rivera and Frida Kahlo for their seemingly contradictory views.This book is not easy reading and requires a base of knowledge prior toreading. One area of interest is his first person accounts with famouspeople. Paz does not pull any punches and is a straight shooter. Theinsights he provides here are excellent. The expressions he provides areeloquent and given with great detail. A trully brilliant thinker thatoffers his thoughts for all to share and enjoy. This book makes youquestion your knowledge and makes you take the leap into a newunderstanding of what you thought you knew. Like all provacative writerswho influence, you come out the better, as a result of his insights. ... Read more