Tuesday, October 17, 2000, 12:11:38 AM - Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine wrote:

JD> Sergei Eisenstein's dialectial montage was even more relevant to Pound than
JD> the objective symbolism used by Griffith.  I'd like to know if he references
JD> Eisenstein.  Japanese character writing helped inspire him to create
JD> montages based on the ideogrammic method.  Did Eisenstein read Fenollosa?

JD> I'm looking for a Griffith reference in the Cantos but have not come up with
JD> anything.  Griffith's filmmaking is bogged down by sensationalism and
JD> melodramma.  I can't imagine that Pound would have found that appealing.
But the difference was in that Griffith invented cinema as art, while
Eisenstein just used some technics (and that's what Pound never
liked). And Griffith never went into any compromises, being finally
(and very quickly) tracked down by Usura, with which he took up a very
courageous fight. And he filmed some 5 films based on "Pippa passing".
And instead of ideograms he had Swedenborg.
"When the usurer climbs into the saddle you have attention absorbed by
the detail, colour, lightning etc. to DETRIMENT of the total reason
for the work's coming to be".
Ideogrammatic cinema is very simple idea, you get it from Ulysses or
anywhere. If you are able to get anything.
All this talk about "inventive technics" and someone's having read
very inspiring works is trash. I remember reading book in which author
tried to find the exact date of Eliot inventing "objective correlate".
Very foolish he seemed.
Take Canto XXVIII (which is very good altogether and dealing with same
subjects):

Thing is to find something simple
As for example Pa Stadtvolk;
Hooks to hang gutters on roofs,
A spike and half-circle, patented 'em and the made 'em;
Worth of a good million, not a book in the place;
Got a horse about twenty years after, seen him
              Of a Saturday afternoon
When they'd taken down an old fence,
Ole Pa out there knockin the nails out
(to _save_'em). I hear he smoked good cigars.


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