"Szu
Enlarged his empire
diminished his forces," -Canto CXI
"And 'to change the meaning of words themselves from one
conference to another.'
Oct. 31st, Wien" - Canto CXI
"Oh God of all men, none excluded
and howls for Schwundgeld in the Convention
(our Constitutional
17 ... whichwhat)" -Canto CXIII
"As to sin, they invented it - eh?
to implement domination
eh? largely. -Canto CXIII
"God's eye art 'ou, do not surrender perception." -Canto CXIII
"And of man seeking good,
doing evil." -Canto CXV
"..., neschek,
The serpent, evil against Nature's increase," -Canto C (Addendum)
"To be men not destroyers." -notes for CANTO CXVII et seq.
So you see the themes run concurrently through the Cantos. Important to note
I think is that some of the difficulty of their accessibility lies at the
root of what Nietzsche would call Pound's "pathos of distance" which also
establishes the distant boundaries of poetry, and with Pound those
boundaries are immense both in time and place. Still the same pathos of
distance puts the poet out of mere possession of his own words "A blown husk
that is finished" but not extinguished.
Look also for reference to the Nicholas Butler affair to see the
connection of finance and war. Pound saw a chance to address it go down
without a hearing. He had a stubborn way of not forgetting things of this
sort, and sometimes they would fester and surface in abundant ugliness. In a
radio broadcast of April 27, 1943 he ballyhooed, "I don't think there is any
American law that permits you to shoot Nicholas Butler. It's a pity, but so
it is no ex post facto laws are to be dreamed of. Not that Frankfurter or
any other damn Jew cares a hoot for law, or for the American Constitution."
Of course this was said before Nuremberg, and Mr. Republican Taft was
yet to scuttle his political career dissenting on the matter of ex post
facto law-making. As to the meaning of the Constitution that seems to be an
ongoing debate at least among the literate and semi-literate members of the
empire.
Moyer
>From: James Kraus <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: genuinely academic inquiry?
>Date: Wed, Apr 2, 2003, 12:33 PM
>
> Bravo, Tim,
>
> The information about seignorage is most interesting, as is Moyer's
> followup. Thanks to both of you.
>
> However, I'm curious about the distinction between the political
> Pound and the religious one. The political one theorizes about big
> money, etc., while the religious one is pacifist.
>
> But where and how do these sensibilities play out in The Cantos?
>
> I imagine that many of us would immediately think of Canto XLV as the
> most prominent one about Pound's money theory, but is there a Canto
> that speaks with equal force about the his pacifism?
>
> Regards,
> Jim Kraus
>
>
>>?Interesting hypothetical. I think Pound would point to the fact that Iraq
>>in the last few years has started to sell oil in euros instead of OPEC's
>>standard dollar currency. What is at stake is a concept called seignorage,
>>the ability to pay off debts in the currency of your choosing. Although oil
>>is clearly important, I think the struggle is about whether the dollar will
>>remain the world currency or whether it will be supplanted by the euro.
>>There are many factors, but I think that is what Pound would point to. I
>>think his 1939 opinion and his 1949 opinion would be the same. I will also
>>note that Pound, by religious heritage and temperament, was fundamentally a
>>pacifist.
>>
>>Pound would also have been very interested in the proposal of Sears to sell
>>its Finance Division. The local newspaper noted that it is far and away the
>>most important part of Sears, contributing something like 70% of the total
>>company revenue.
>>
>>In other words, the retail operation exists to create debt.
>>
>>Cheers,
>>
>>Tim Redman
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: - Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine
>>[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of $BEOJU?.Fs (B
>>Sent: Monday, March 31, 2003 8:53 PM
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: genuinely academic inquiry?
>>
>>
>>Dear EP list-serv. members,
>>
>>I don't know the following inquiry sounds genuinely academic or not, but I
>>really want to hear some suggestions and/or suppositions as to what
>>opinions Ezra Pound would reveal to the now-going-on War in Iraq; and
>>whether the opinions would be different between EP in 1939 and EP in 1949.
>>
>>
>>--
>>
>> $B"!EOJU?.Fs"! (BWATANABE Shinji $B"! (B
>> $B"! (BHome Mail $B!' ([log in to unmask] $B"! (BPrivate HP :
>>http://www.geocities.co.jp/Bookend-Hemingway/6617/ $B"! (B"The urge to save
>>humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it." -H.L.
>>Mencken $B"!Cf9qo*$r=,$C$F$_$?$$?M?M$OEZMK3X=,2q$X$I$&$>"! (B
>>
>>__________________________________________________
>>Do You Yahoo!?
>>Yahoo! BB is Broadband by Yahoo! http://bb.yahoo.co.jp/
>
>
> --
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