I agree there are aspects of Pound's character that are distinctly
narcissistic. The narcissism is evident in the early poems (though not, to
my mind, in Propertius or Cathay); Mauberley takes a self-critical glance at
this kind of self-regarding poesy, as the aesthetic style of the '90s is
brutally rebutted by the War. Oddly, I don't see the Cantos as a
narcissistic poem at all. Pound was aiming rather higher than mere
"self-expression" and fantasy.
 
Whilst Pound the man clearly held a high opinion of himself in many
respects, he was not prone to praising his own work and was unusually
selfless in the pursuit of recognition for others. This observation is of
course a commonplace in discussions about Pound but it is nonetheless true
and we should not lose sight of it.
 
It seems to me that a reader who is determined to indulge his or her own
"personal poet manque narcissism" will succeed in doing so whatever
particular poet he or she happens to be reading. I don't see how Pound's
work can be said to lend itself particularly to that kind of abuse. Surely
the work of, say, John Berryman is a far richer source of titillation for
the narcissistic poet manque than Pound's is.
 
When exactly did the "age of narcissism" begin? 4000 BC?
 
Richard Edwards
 
 
>From: bob scheetz <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine
>  <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: A summary for Richard Caddel
>Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 22:42:48 -0500
>
>doesn't everything about ep point to raging narcissism?
>the great man/poet thing, the sequence of picturesque personae
>beginning with bertran, mandarin, jefferson/adams, etc
>...the impregnable self-assurance,
>...luxuriating in self-fantasy, exhibitionism,
>and poetry qua self-promotion?
>...the imperviousness to umwelt & mitwelt,
>except qua stage and audience?
>
>is ep the laureat of the age of narcissism?
>the cantoes a kinda lotus-eater-land poetry,
>wherein all we can indulge
>our personal poet manque narcissism?
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jonathan Morse <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Monday, November 01, 1999 5:33 AM
>Subject: A summary for Richard Caddel
>
>
> >In "Ezra Pound: 'Insanity,' 'Treason,' and Care," _Critical Inquiry_ 14
> >(1987): 134-41, William M. Chace writes:
> >
> >"[A] blend of compassion and outright annoyance characterizes the
>attitudes
> >of a great many of Pound's acquaintances over the years. As early as the
> >1920s in Rapallo, his visitors and correspondents, among them Ernest
> >Hemingway, W. B. Yeats, and James Joyce, tended to note the same thing:
>the
> >poet was embarrassingly self-congratulatory, impervious to advice or
> >criticism of even the mildest kind, and high-handed in every regard.
> >Hemingway wrote that the poet 'makes a bloody fool of himself 99 times
>out
> >of 100 when he writes anything but poetry.' Archibald MacLeish, later to
> >rally to Pound's assistance, reported early on that he was 'a bit fed up
> >with the Ezraic assumption that he is a Great Man.' Joyce saw him as a
> >fellow writer who turned up 'brilliant discoveries' but also 'howling
> >blunders.' Over the years, Pound put all his friends to the test, the
>test
> >of complying with his wishes, agreeing with his findings about all
>matters
> >under the sun, and surrendering their will to his. It was a strong will,
> >but in the end it overwhelmed none of his friends. Those closest to him,
> >particularly Williams, who had known him longer than anyone else, did not
> >give in but watched with dismay: 'This ain't the old Ez I used to know,'
> >Williams wrote in one of the most charged of his letters. 'You're in the
> >wrong bin. Your arse is congealed. Your cock fell in the jello. Wake
>up!'"
> >(136-37)
> >
> >Chace draws all his examples from Torrey's _The Roots of Treason_.
> >Williams' letter is dated April 7, 1938.
> >
> >And this is the same issue of _Critical Inquiry_ that contains Conrad L.
> >Rushing's "'Mere Words': The Trial of Ezra Pound" and Richard Sieburth's
> >"In Pound We Trust: The Economy of Poetry / The Poetry of Economics." How
> >much we lost when the PC Police mounted their coup against that journal!
> >
> >Jonathan Morse
 
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com