En Lin Wei wrote:

> [snip].
>
> I think that you are right that this account is racially stereotypical and
> patronizing.  Seen in the larger context of Pound's other references to
> "breeding," and his expressed admiration for Hitler's racial program, I see
> it as worse than patronizing.

Yes. I've been reading the poem for about 45 years -- starting over a
decade before my political views changed rather radically. And once
the poem has bitten one, it seems impossible not to continue to love
it. But under current social/political conditions I could not in honesty
recommend to a young person that they devote much time to it. Like
some other great epics, it will be easier to admire unreservedly when
its ideas are really dead -- which will not, I fear, be soon.

Carrol