Tim Romano writes:
> to do. My point was rather that Pound is not an aberration; and yet a
> student today might easily get that impression from the manner in which
> Pound is often written about.
>
> To demonize Pound by linking him to the harsh political acts/sins against
> mankind/atrocities/draconian measures (however one wishes to characterize
> them) of the leaders, ancient and modern, whom Pound chooses to exalt for
> some quality or qualities they possessed, gives the false impression that
> Pound was not a product of his times; it suggests that his views were so
> exterme that he was on the fringes. But these views were common, almost
> "mainstream."  The record of these times has been distorted and purged.

tim,
     i almost agree...but don't think "product of his times"
and "mainstream" quite accurate rendering
...better said his text is a product of his engage' posture
vis a vis the global revolutionary crises of the 30's...it speaks that
crises...a voice which needs to be heard,
...and which as logically  has to be neutered ("demonized")
by the victor.
anyway...admittedly itz not brecht...perhaps had he stayed in merka
...but still, his ideological confession and praxis, for all its warts,
exceeds boojwa lib by a damm quantum, no?

bob





----- Original Message -----
From: Tim Romano <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2000 8:02 AM
Subject: Re: Pound , Censorship and "Social Darwinism"


> Wei,
> I no longer have to hand the broadcasts edited by Doob, but there you will
> find _many_ passages to support the view that Pound's racism has a
> "scientific" eugenist component to it --  ~the best science today is
racial~
> [I paraphrase since memory fails on the exact quotation].  He makes a
number
> of  references in the broadcasts to the need to preserve the race from the
> downgrading of miscegenation, stating that the knowledge of animal
breeding
> needs to be applied to human society. By the time these ideas gets to
Pound,
> this "science" may be merely popular science. I cannot tell you what books
> or articles, or what correspondence, Pound had been reading on the subject
> of social engineering (though I suspect Jonathan Morse would probably have
> this information).  It may turn out that Pound read some science on this
> subject and also found many of his ideas texpressed in popularizations of
> these principles.  Certainly they were commonplaces. But even if these
> notions were no more than "broadly cultural" as you suggest, that only
> underscores the point I was making. I did not set out to demonstrate a
> clearly discernible paper trail, to establish "influence" to the
> satisfaction of the literary historian, though that may indeed be possible
> to do. My point was rather that Pound is not an aberration; and yet a
> student today might easily get that impression from the manner in which
> Pound is often written about.
>
> To demonize Pound by linking him to the harsh political acts/sins against
> mankind/atrocities/draconian measures (however one wishes to characterize
> them) of the leaders, ancient and modern, whom Pound chooses to exalt for
> some quality or qualities they possessed, gives the false impression that
> Pound was not a product of his times; it suggests that his views were so
> exterme that he was on the fringes. But these views were common, almost
> "mainstream."  The record of these times has been distorted and purged.
>
> Other artists have been long ignored, their works allowed to go out of
print
> or rot in basements. I spent 8 years studying literature, from the late
'70s
> through the mid '80s and did not see the name of the painter and
> man-of-letters Wyndham Lewis mentioned even once in any course
description,
> or hear his name mentioned by any teacher or colleague --the man whom T.S.
> Eliot called "the greatest prose writer of my generation"-- and when I did
> learn about Lewis, it was impossible to find copies of his many works
> anywhere; in some instances, the works had been removed from the shelves.
I
> happen to know that rare scientific works on eugenics are being removed
from
> the shelves of a major university to be stored offsite, not in a special
> archive, but in an area devoted to superseded or discredited volumes which
> are destined eventually for the incinerator, while the pulp fiction
section
> is growing larger. There's a painting by Augustus John of the South
African
> poet Roy Campbell locked away in a basement in an art museum in Pittsburgh
> PA, where it has been out of sight for maybe 40 years. e.e. cumming's work
> EIMI is also out of print.  Pound's translation of Moscardino is out of
> print.
>
> If I had the broadcasts to hand, I would cite the passage where Pound
writes
> that it does not matter what the artist believes he is making or doing; if
> he sincerely reports what his eyes are observing, his works will reflect
the
> times.
>
> Tim Romano