Tim,
Thanks. Fair enough assessment of Ezra, the "Terrible".
Couldn't "VIRTUSCH" (Canto XXXV) be read German "Vertusch"- "hidden,
concealed. hush-up"?
Isn't there something sadly contemporary about the Pound/Butler affair i.e.
the refusal to look at real causes no matter how painful the remedies
implied may be or who they might offend?
Do you know anything about the Pounds' cats, names, stories, etc.? Has any
other biographer looked into the subject? Just curious as cat fancier.

Charles

----------
>From: Tim Redman <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Pound's nomination to Writers Corner
>Date: Fri, Mar 7, 2003, 2:44 PM
>

> Sorry to respond so late to this query.  I'm just catching up on e-mail.
>
> I imagine the quote was from The New York Times article about the
> controversy.  It might have been from my book.  I stand by my remark.
>
> If most of what you are hearing and/or reading contains strongly worded
> anti-Semitic statements, I would suggest that you would be more inclined to
> be or become anti-Semitic.  You might not do anything actively, but you
> might look the other way as people are being rounded up, or not hide an old
> family friend, or even be encouraged to take part in rounding people up.
>
> The key question in this regard is whether or not Pound had any knowledge of
> the Holocaust.  I have found no contemporary sources that even suggest that
> he did.  There is one statement years later about Pound making a public
> remark.  But the practice of contemporary historians (and biographers) is to
> downplay such later memories and give major weight to contemporary evidence.
>
> For a much fuller discussion of Pound's anti-Semitism, I refer you to my
> book, Ezra Pound and Italian Fascism (New York:  Cambridge UP, 1991).  I am
> currently, and at times it seems interminably, at work on a Pound biography.
>
> My own view is that Pound is the greatest poet of the twentieth century and
> that The Cantos bear comparison with La Commedia.  The one anti-Semitic
> statement, falsely attributed to Benjamin Franklin, will stand to remind
> future generations of the crime of the Holocaust.  I share Kenner's view
> that "The tale of the perfect schnorrer" of Canto XXXV is an example of a
> community policing its own, not anti-Semitism.  I asked my friend and former
> colleague Jeffrey Perl once if he considered that canto anti-Semitic and he
> said "No.  The story is being reported."  He added:  "It ain't exactly
> friendly."  Or words to that effect.
>
> Professor Casillo, in a negative review of my book, thought it ridiculous
> that I could characterize Pound as pro-Zionist and anti-Semitic, thinking
> that those phrases were contradictory.  They are not -- the conjunction is
> well known.  Refer to debate about Herzl's book occurring within the Jewish
> community in Vienna and elsewhere towards the end of the 19th century.
>
> In writing an epic, Pound chose to attempt a work of great historic
> durability.  I believe he succeeded in his task, and that he will have
> readers hundreds of years to come.  And if that is the case, consider one
> question:
>
> Does anyone believe that the Neri were right in exiling Dante?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tim Redman
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: - Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of charles moyer
> Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 6:16 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Pound's nomination to Writers Corner
>
>
> As expected it's worse than that.
>  Go to http://www.loper.org/~george/trends/1999/Oct/76.html
> When I looked at this site and read the quotations on the stones for each
> writer I had to laugh at how each quotation, naturally brief, naturally out
> of any context, was chosen so it could be safely interpreted "nihil obstat"
> "inspirational" -old trick of the old trickster preacher. But how many
> possible quotations I could see also from nearly all these writers that
> would appear to have been inspired by Old Beezelbub himself. And so the
> perfect wedding made in Heaven between the Institution and his bride
> Hypocrisy continues its public nuptials, now in a "poets' ingle".
>     And Redman, you are quoted here as saying "and he (Pound) contributed
> to a climate of opinion that enabled the Holocaust to happen". I would like
> to see even this "water-down" accusation  proved. Was there ever anyone who
> condoned the Nazi pogrom because they were guided by Pound's remarks? Since
> Pound was never tried the question should forever remain mute. But it
> doesn't because it fits so well others' political agendas. I suggest you ask
> Carlo Parcelli how influential Pound is to today's raving Hamans.
>    And as for Ms. Ra, the converted Jew who has joined the congregation of
> the better networking Episcopalians and is responsible for leading the
> righteous charge of petitioners might when confronted with the scripture of
> John 1:47 of her newly discovered "word of God" comfortably identify herself
> with Nathaniel rather than the others to which her apparently "self-hating"
> Messiah refers.
>
>     Here's a different quote for Henry James' stone:
> "the triumph of superficiality and the apotheosis of the raw"
>
>     Here's another suggestion for Frost's rock of ages:
> "Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee
> And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me."
>
> This could be fun. Anyone else want to play?
>
> Charles
>
>
> ----------
>>From: charles moyer <[log in to unmask]>
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Re: Pound's nomination to Writers Corner
>>Date: Wed, Mar 5, 2003, 5:45 AM
>>
>
>> "Writers Corner" sounds like some kind of clerical purgatory anyway, where
>> the writers are expected to face the wall and remain silent.
>>
>> "The death of any great nation is always a suicide." -Arnold Toynbee
>>
>> ----------
>>>From: Tom White <[log in to unmask]>
>>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>>Subject: Re: Pound's nomination to Writers Corner
>>>Date: Tue, Mar 4, 2003, 11:13 PM
>>>
>>
>>> I can't imagine Pound would want, alive or dead, to keep company with the
>>> kind of people controlling access to this "Writers Corner." He has made
>>> quite sure that it will be centuries before commonplace, conventional,
> and
>>> stupid people will be able to be comfortable in his presence or do
> anything
>>> but shriek and run from the room when his name is mentioned. Meanwhile we
>>> live amid the final rendering and grinding down of the injustices he
> railed
>>> against. It was Emerson I think who said a man is bigger than a city,
> surely
>>> he is bigger than a cathedral. Tom White
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> From: Jennifer Wilson <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> Reply-To: - Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine
>>>> <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 21:54:54 EST
>>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>>> Subject: Pound's nomination to Writers Corner