On Wed, 10 Jun 1998, Tom McKeown wrote:
 
> On Bill's point about "L'Homme Moyen Sensuel," I think we have to factor
>
> in the date:  Pound had just written "February 1915", which he tells his
>
> father he had written in blind anger at the destruction of the war.
> With friends dying on a daily basis, it wasn't  the best time to
> showcase his aethetic abilities.  In any case, the Smart Set was
> self-consciously sophisticated, never one of Pound's strong suits.
> "L'Homme Moyen" was simply, as Pound himself called it, "a diversion."
 
I'm not sure when Pound called it a diversion, but the letter to Mencken
(then editing Smart Set) suggests it's anything but. He calls it a satire,
which was a serious term for Pound -- in another piece, he suggests that
Joyce's _Portrait_ was a satire, and claims if it had been read more
widely it could have prevented the troubles in Ireland in the 'teens. He
also repeatedly invokes Byron, which clearly indicates he wants "L'Homme"
to exert some social or political influence.
 
The letter is on pp 57-8 of the Selected Letters.
 
Bill Freind