This post is directed mainly to Carlo Parcelli, though it concerns the whole
issue of "deconstructing" Pound.

I have just read parts of the poem, "Deconstructing the Demiurge:  Tale of
the Tribe".

I highly recommend it to people who are interested in Pound, in contemporary
poetry, and the issues that have been discussed on this forum for the past
several days.

The poem can be found at:

http://webdelsol.com/FLASHPOINT/

I want to say I have nothing but the greatest respect for your efforts and
for the task you have set yourself in composing this poem.  I also
understand why you might have very negative feelings about my critique of
the social, political, economic and ideological implications of Pound's
work.

I can also see why you have so much respect for Pound's poetic technique and
epistlemological methodology.

My own reaction to the work is very positive

I particularly liked the verse:


                                                                                 The Mach in Machiavelli.
                 A calculus to appropriate parameters from states.
                 No strength but force in 'seeing' the electron as wraith,
                 nor feel the mouth's propensities form 'fidelity';
                 quantum of action when a Greek granulated time;
                 Sopped blood from the stones.

As I was present for two days at the anti-World Bank anti-IMF demonstrations
in DC on the weekend of April 16, I was especially interested in the verse:

                                          Chief economist Summers: "just between you and me
                 shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more migration of
dirty industries to LDC's?…
                                  the economic logic behind dumping toxic
waste
                                  in the lowest wage country is impeccable.'
                 A practical aesthetics and it's 'neutral epistemology';
balance, objectivity.
                 A meteorological sky reflected in corporate headquarter's
tesselated symmetry.
                 "An universal mathematical character" looks forth from the
window,
                                                  the observer sliced by the
blinds.


There is much to praise in this poem, from an aesthetic point of view, and
(in my opinion) there is much merit in the social and economic underpinning
of the work.

So you must excuse me, if you have been offended by my work.  It seems to me
you have already done, in your own way, for your own purposes, what I am
trying to do, in a different way (and probably for different purposes):
namely, you have worked to appropriate much that is good in Pound's
technique, while NOT falling into the same ideological traps that Pound fell
into.  (Of course my assessment is limited because I cannot be said to have
"absorbed" your poem in its entirety--but this is my initial impression).
You yourself have said that you have wrestled with, and sought to address
Pound's shortcomings, with regard to his incorporation of racist and fascist
views into his work.  Apparently you are, in a major way, succeeding in
"winnowing" out some wheat from considerable chaff.

(I was not able to gather from your poem what your views are on China, on
interpreting Chinese history, or on your reaction to Pound's interpretation
of Chinese history, subjects which are dear to me.  But as you say, you are
working on that.  I think some on the list, besides myself might be
interested in some of your reflections on that theme:  the Han, and Qin
dynasties, for instance).

Regards,

Wei

PS  Another line I like,

"Exploitation disguised as economic esperanto"


Quite pithy.  And for me it sums up all the arguments around PNTR for China.


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