Dear Mohandas,
 
I appreciate your thoughtful reply.  In your posting, which
I copy below, I single out this segment for the moment:
 
"My case is that EP's Muss. is a Dionysus-figure as well,
>conceived in terms of Greco-Roman paganism.  Such a political formation is
>anti-Judaic in spirit and this endows Pound's anti-Semitism with a
>structural and political function."
 
It seems to me that Pound's paganism should be as much anti-Christian
as anti-Judaic.  Why he chose to hate *preferentially* is another
issue entirely.
 
==Dan
 
At 08:26 PM 10/16/98 +0500, you wrote:
>Dear Dan,
>
>I 'm afraid I didn't make it clear enough.  I do not hold that Pound's
>anti-Semitism stems directly from a reaction against the strictures in The
>Torah.  However, his thought lands him in a position that can rationalize
>and use race-prejudice to consolidate itself.
>
>Pound's interest in Greek knowledge/practice (Eleusis in particular) is far
>more than thematic.  I read it as an interest in a mode of perception and
>representation, which are fundamentally similar to his own.  The Muss. of
>the Cantos, for instance, is a product of this mode.  The Torah forbids
>such perception and thus EP's "suburban prejudice" acquires a new
>dimension.  What he inherited from the cultural milieu in which he grew up
>becomes a convenient tool in the specific Hellenic context of his mature
>thought.  My case is that EP's Muss. is a Dionysus-figure as well,
>conceived in terms of Greco-Roman paganism.  Such a political formation is
>anti-Judaic in spirit and this endows Pound's anti-Semitism with a
>structural and political function.  That is, Pound has a valid political
>reason for attacking Jewish texts--possibly without reading them thoroughly
>though I have not been able to verify that.
>
>Maybe I'm a bit too preoccupied with this issue bec. I have the current
>Indian context in mind.  What prevails here appears to be similar to the
>German situation in the 30s.  The basic patterns have a lot in common, to
>the extent that here too, a Semitic religion is on the receiving end.
>However, to elaborate on it would mean a thoroughly political discussion
>and this doesn't seem to be the right place for it.
>
>Mohandas C. Bhaskaran
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>
Dan Pearlman                    Office: Department of English
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