Jonathan Gill wrote:
>> The question seems to me: what kinds of responsibility accrues to the
>> language act, either over the radio, or in poetry?  Is there a way we can
>> deal with the most eccentric or extreme of Pound's writing without
>> putting it in the literary equivalent of an insane asylum?
 
Tim Redman writes:
>As I have stated before, I believe that Pound suffered from an
>undiagnosed manic-depressive (bipolar) disorder.  I am pursiuing that
>hypothesis in my biography.
 
I hope we are not looking to find psychological *determinants*
for Pound's behavior--especially for his language acts.
Depression, whether manic or simple, may *condition* our behavior,
but it will never *explain* specific behavior.  To me, the most
satisfactory *explanation* for EP's later behavioral extremes
would be to discover a prior, life-long PATTERN of behavior to
which the later acts conform despite the distortions produced
under unusual stress.  Such patterns define personality.
Personality is the closest thing to a causal factor that you'll
probably ever find for behavior.  Given two people under
theoretically equivalent stress, each person's behavior will
run along the differing behavioral grooves etched by personality.
 
Has anyone done--is anyone capable of doing--a study of EP's
lifelong personality?  If the concept is well-defined, it need
not be elusive.
 
Have fun, you guys!
 
==Dan Pearlman
Dan Pearlman                    Office: Department of English
102 Blackstone Blvd. #5                 University of Rhode Island
Providence, RI 02906                    Kingston, RI 02881
Tel.: 401 453-3027                      Tel.: 401 874-4659
email: [log in to unmask]            Fax:  401 874-2580