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Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine <[log in to unmask]>
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David Centrone <[log in to unmask]>
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Fri, 22 May 1998 13:48:43 -0400
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Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine <[log in to unmask]>
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I don't see any need to canonize Pound or try to see him as being seperate
or "above" the times with our newly-modeled perspectives.  Anti-Semitism was
as common to Europe as the catholic church, and I tend to think that Pound's
use is a realistic reflection of renaissance (& post-renaissance) tones.  I
don't seem to ever hear as much complaining about it in Shakespear (e. g.
Merchant of Venice) as I do with regards to Pound.  Also, I have found, in
letters to Zukofsky, instances before 1938 where Pound denounces
anti-Semitism -- against fascists (some in Britain) who were equating Jews
with usury.  Essentially, Pound said that he opposed the use of racism as a
political means.
 
David Centrone
 
At 01:10 AM 5/22/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Whether or not, at the end of his life, Pound "recanted"
>about anything (about Usury, or about his "insufficient
>attention to the Hebraic element in history," as he told
>me personally), should not--IMHO--affect our reading of
>the Cantos, which he had ceased adding anything to by 1960,
>about the time he became preoccupied with health problems
>and became very depressed and self-deprecatory.  Chaucer
>"recanted" his whole frivolous literary career before his
>own death--no doubt to secure entry into heaven--but the
>Miller's Tale is still as funny as ever.
>
>==Dan Pearlman
>
>At 07:35 PM 5/21/98 -0700, you wrote:
>>In John Tytell's "Ezra Pound - The Solitary Volcano" he stated on page 338:
>>
>>"Two weeks before his eighty-seventh birthday he read at a small cafe for
>>an intimate gathering of friends. The material included a sort of
>>postscript to The Cantos:
>>
>>'re USURY
>>I was out of focus, taking a symptom for a
>>cause.
>>The cause is AVARICE .' "
>>
>>Tytell goes on with "It all seemed like an apologia, ..."
>>
>>Does anyone disagree that Pound recanted on his lifelong stand on usury?
>>
>Dan Pearlman                    Office: Department of English
>102 Blackstone Blvd. #5                 University of Rhode Island
>Providence, RI 02906                    Kingston, RI 02881
>Tel.: 401 453-3027                      Tel.: 401 874-4659
>email: [log in to unmask]            Fax:  401 874-2580
>
>

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