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Sun, 12 Oct 2003 13:15:28 -0500 |
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Dear friends --
I last night ran across a claim (authored by Hugh Kenner) that Canto II
is an "oblique protest against the Prohibition amendment". I did some
searches around in the MLA bibliography but didn't find any articles
that address this oblique protest. (I did find some that appear to
suggest prohibition as a good-enough motivation to keep American expats
in Europe.) Does anyone first of all know of essays that cope with
Pound & Prohibition? Does anyone secondly, have a good reading of
Canto II that points in this direction? I suppose I could attempt this
reading alone (and I will, regardless), but recognizing that there is
no substitute for critical tradition, I would very much like to listen
to your thoughts as well.
It does seem strange that such a socially sweeping legislative act
should not find fuller representation in the verse of Modernist poets,
particularly compared with the non-stop temperance talk of their
antebellum predecessors. Perhaps there's a connection between popular
social control of alcohol and popular discourse that state-imposed
Prohibition short-circuits. Particularly in light of the present day
War on Drugs, this seems a critical question. For what reasons do
public communicators become silent about state-based prohibition? What
Pound would have to say on this is opaque to me -- it doesn't seem to
be something he talks about. Any ideas?
Go Cubs!
Jon Weidler (in Chicago)
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