So, both the bio articles for authors James Joyce and Ezra Pound don't have infoboxes, based on consensus reached on their respective talk pages. However, the talk pages are infuriating, and basically the reason they don't have infoboxes is because of a very vocal minority of what seem to be diehard modernist fans claiming that Joyce and Pound's lives are "too complex" to be contained in an infobox, despite the fact that all infoboxes are supposed to do is make basic biographical data accessible.
Here's some things over heard in the talk page discussion for Pound's bio (which can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ezra ... of_Infobox)
In the second go-around in asking if Pound could get an infobox, the argument gets even stranger. Despite addressing many of the issues laid out in the argument above, stuff got weird, and really argumentative. I won't even try to summarize, go read it for yourself at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ezra ... ed_infobox.I dislike an infobox for this particular article for a number of reasons, but mostly because the peculiarities of Pound's life are difficult to distill into the fields of an infobox. He was born in Hailey but only lived there for the first 18 months of his life; he went to the University of Pennsylvania but graduated from Hamilton; he was married to Dorothy but had a half-century affair with Olga; he had a child with his mistress, his wife had a child presumably fathered by someone else; the list of his influences is long and in turn he influenced the next generation or two of poets. I've tried to write the lead in such a manner that the facts of his life are presented there without the necessity of the infobox. Truthkeeper88 (talk) 12:39, 29 September 2010 (UTC)
But, at least there was discussion in Pound's biography, and at least good, common sense people were making the good, common sense argument that Pound's bio article needed an infobox. That is hardly the case with Joyce's bio article, where the idea was dismissed quickly, without much discussion and only a straw poll to gauge whether it was necessary. (You can find more info at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Jame ... infobox.3F)
So now, two of the most important English-speaking writers of the 20th century are sans infobox, which, despite what the people who made that rule will tell you, are pretty important in terms of getting basic biographical info. You know have to look pretty hard to find when and where Pound died, for example, or any info about Joyce's marriage.
Shit like this just frustrates the hell out of me, and I wanted to vent my frustration and anger with you guys, because I just find the rationale behind this bullshit to be completely fascinating, and would love further insight at this culture of preventing certain aspects of Wikipedia from existing simply because the editors in charge don't feel like it is a proper summary of a subject's life.
fireflyfanboy.
