Dear friends --

I last night ran across a claim (authored by Hugh Kenner) that Canto II
is an "oblique protest against the Prohibition amendment".  I did some
searches around in the MLA bibliography but didn't find any articles
that address this oblique protest.  (I did find some that appear to
suggest prohibition as a good-enough motivation to keep American expats
in Europe.)  Does anyone first of all know of essays that cope with
Pound & Prohibition?  Does anyone secondly, have a good reading of
Canto II that points in this direction?  I suppose I could attempt this
reading alone (and I will, regardless), but recognizing that there is
no substitute for critical tradition, I would very much like to listen
to your thoughts as well.

It does seem strange that such a socially sweeping legislative act
should not find fuller representation in the verse of Modernist poets,
particularly compared with the non-stop temperance talk of their
antebellum predecessors.  Perhaps there's a connection between popular
social control of alcohol and popular discourse that state-imposed
Prohibition short-circuits.  Particularly in light of the present day
War on Drugs, this seems a critical question.  For what reasons do
public communicators become silent about state-based prohibition?  What
Pound would have to say on this is opaque to me -- it doesn't seem to
be something he talks about.  Any ideas?

Go Cubs!
Jon Weidler (in Chicago)