On Present as Prologue

What does Olson mean? I think he is proposing directness. Aesthetics can become somewhat a layer over what we truly want to express. Our words, written or spoken, flow on the same plane as our actions, thoughts. If all of these flow in that plane of authenticity, why should we aspire beautification? I mean, beautification is ok as long as it is honest, earnest, and true and does not hinder truth and goodness. It shouldn't fool us and hide what is underneath.

On competition

Olson thought of writing not in traditional literary or composition terms, but more as an "active searching … how that point of view … might create value in relation to others and to society."

This suggests a non-competitive model: the value lies not in outperforming others, but in finding and expressing one's own experience with integrity.

This model seems to downplay competition in favor of a shared "polis" (community) where individuals grow in relation to others, not by winning.

Much of their thought is more implicit: they build a pedagogy and poetics that de-emphasize competition through their values of process, craft, community, and respect for individual material.

Given what they valued -- process over product, individual vision, communal inquiry -- it's reasonable to infer that Olson and others at Black Mountain would have been wary of a hyper-competitive writing culture. Their methods seem to foster internal development rather than external rivalry.

Their emphasis on "materials" and concrete experience (from Albers's influence) suggests that they prized authenticity: doing one's own work, not imitating or outdoing someone else.