On the subject of Pound and the folks of the laundromat, I was
wondering if others had seen the episode of Law & Order S.I. where the
English professor's plot to cover up a murder is discovered when the
investigator catches the professor's TA mis-attributing an Ezra Pound
quote he should have recognized from the papers he was grading . . .

I'm sorry -- it's tough to summarize a murder mystery in a sentence,
especially when the important part has to do with an Ezra Pound
reference used as a lynchpin clue.  The TA that the detectives grilled
had spent the last seven years writing a thesis that doesn't seem to be
proceeding -- the title of the paper he was trying to write was
"Fighting in the Captain's Tower: Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot in popular
American culture" or some such.  As I hope is not news to anyone, his
paper was inspired by Bob Dylan's use of the poets' names.  Of course,
I didn't hear more about said pop culture / Pound studies paper, since
the point of the show was to catch the English professor and not his
TA.  Between this Law & Order episode, the Mental Floss item,
"Desolation Row", and the support of Japhy Ryder, I'm wondering about
EP's status as an icon of sorts in a corner of the American pop-culture
imaginary.

The "what would Pound think" exercise is rarely illuminating, so I'll
pass it by for a more interesting question: how did Pound represent his
public aspirations?  I know about the "conspiracy of intelligence"
enough to know that he was depending on an audience of illuminati to be
receptive to his text (particularly The Cantos) -- Surette's arguments
point in that direction, I think most plausibly -- but did he conceive
of or record at any point further plans or hopes for the public
consequences of his work?  _Cathay_, I understand, was popular in the
trenches (and I would like to know more about this if anyone knows).
How was this publicity welcomed by its author?  Were perhaps his
ultimate goals accomplished by his advocacy for all those other
important modern writers?  What mark did he say he wanted to leave on
the public at large?

And how did he respond to public relations / advertising folk like
Walter Lippmann?

Not at all expecting massive answers -- just wanting to ask the
questions on my mind,
& Cheers to a frequently wonderful discussion,
Jon Weidler

On Saturday, September 13, 2003, at 11:18  AM, Joseph M. Finnerty wrote:

> Zeno?  You mean Zena, the Warrior Princess?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: charles moyer [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2003 7:25 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Mental Psyllium/ Re: Magazine article
>
>
> "Ah, the thought of what America would be like if..."
>