How and where does anti-semitism effect or embody  Pound's poetics? His
economics, personality, social views: yes. Imagism? Modernization of
dramatic monologue? the Vortex? free verse? where is anti-semitism
relevant in the development of any of these poetic achievments? In The
Cantos, do the fragments of anti-semitism consume the main poetic
themes and techniques which Pound strove to perfect? Pound was a great
poet, but like Villon, Chaucer, Hemmingway,and Joyce, was a suspected
asshole. Get over it. Be scholars and concern yourself with the
anti-semitism when it is necessary. When it arises, talk about it,
quote it, put it in proper context whether it makes Pound look like a
great guy or not. I would like to see more comments supported by
quotes, as I sometimes miss how these comments relate to the work (my
fault).
Erik Volpe
62 Waller St.
Providence, RI 02908
401 351 3619
--- Daniel Pearlman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
 
 
> By selective quotation, you softpedal the
> antisemitism of the
> 30s, which grew more and more severe.
>
> ==DP
>
>
> At 12:09 PM 9/6/99 -0800, you wrote:
> >If I may intrude my ignorance into this learned
> discussion one more time...
> >
> >EP's "anti-semitism" seems to me a much more
> complicated matter than
> >either his defenders or detractors appear to
> realize.
> >
> >1.From his earliest letters, poems & articles, EP
> had an "anti-Judaic"
> >positition,but I don't think this qualifies as
> "anti-semitic" because
> >it was part of his general "anti-monotheist"
> stance, and (I think)
> >always appears as part of a general rejection of
> Chrisitianity, Judaism
> >and Islam --"all this Xtian-Jew-Moslem bunk"as he
> sez in one place.
> >(Selected Leters)
> >B. In a 1919 aritcle,EP says he prfers the Jews to
> the Xtians and Moslems
> >because they haven't started a religious war in
> 2000 years (Selected Prose)
> >C.The anti-monotheist position seems part of that
> aspect of  EP
> >which comes closest to conventional "liberalism":
> he dislikes monotheism
> >because it appears historically linked to
> intolerance.
> >[Okay: he also disliked monotheism on poetic
> grounds.  His type
> >of multilinguistic/multicultural sensibility
> resonated more to
> >polytheistic imagery than to monotheistic
> abstraction
> >or to Hindic monist abstraction.]
> >
> >2. In the 1930s, Pound repudiated anti-semitism
> specifically and
> >precisely in several places. Having joined the
> anti-banker radicals
> >as distinct from the anti-free-market  radicals,
> Pound found he
> >had a lot of anti-semitic allies. He was not
> quickly seduced by
> >them. His 1930-1940 writings include several
> explicit rejectons
> >of generalized anti-semitism, usually on the
> grounds that "the
> >poorJews"were not responsible for the Rothschilds,
> and twice on
> >the grounds that the worst "usurers"
> (money-coiners) were
> >not all  Jews and once on the grounds that some of
> them were "Aryan"
> >-- a sarcastic repudiation of Hitler's ideas.
> (Collected Letters, Cantos,
> >Terrel's Companion to the Cantos.)
> >
> >3. From about 1940 to somewhere in the 1960s EP
> clearly
> >and unambigously expressed uncritical (bigoted)
> anti-semitism on
> >many, many occasions. Only rarely did he pull back
> to the
> >(relatively sane) position of only blaming certain
> banking families.
> >He raved  and ranted against "the Jews" in general.
> >Some consider this immoral; some consider it
> insane;
> >I can see some truth in both perspectives.
> >
> >4.From sometime in the 1960s (date unknown to me: I
> wd
> >love to be informed by one of the more learned
> members of
> >this list  ) EP repudiated his anti-semitism. (See
> especially
> >his interview with Allen Ginsberg) He then became
> silent,
> >either in clinical depression (psychiatric view) or
> as
> >pennance (religious view.) In either case, the
> punishment
> >inflicted upon him by the US govt was continued by
> >self-punishment.
> >
> >5. The anti-monotheist position disappeared around
> the same
> >time as the anti-semitism. The religious imagery of
> Pound's
> >paradise cantos very carefully remains
> non-sectarian,
> >open to both monotheist and polytheist readings.
> >
> >This letter does not arrive at a verdict, and does
> not intend
> >to move others toward a verdict or toward
> abandonning thier
> >previous verdicts. I merely wish to share my own
> sense
> >of the complexity and tragedy of Pound's "errors
> and wrecks."
> >Most of the Cantos seem to me neither error nor
> wreck.....
> >
> >
> >Most humbly,
> >
> >
> >mark chan
> >
> >
> >[log in to unmask]
> >
> >
> >That is precisely what common sense is for, to be
> jarred into uncommon
> >sense.  One of the chief services whcih mathematics
> has  rendered the
> >human race in the past century is to put "common
> sense" where it
> >belongs, on the topmost shelf next to the dust
> cannister labeled
> >"discarded nonsense."
> >        Eric  Temple   Bell, Mathematics: Queen of
> the Sciences
> >
> >
> >Las die Lasagne weiter fliegen!
> >
> >~
> >
> HOME:
> Dan Pearlman
> 102 Blackstone Blvd. #5
> Providence, RI 02906
> Tel.: 401 453-3027
> email: [log in to unmask]
> Fax: (253) 681-8518
> http://www.uri.edu/artsci/english/clf/
>
> OFFICE
> Department of English
> University of Rhode Island
> Kingston, RI 02881
> Tel.: 401 874-4659
>
 
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