JB wrote,
>
> > after all, this is a man who believed in the
> > gods, in spirit, if not in fact.
>
I would like JB to elaborate on this.  And would also like to extend the
olive branch on the political, social, and economic issues for the moment.

I am interested, if you are, in discussing the precise content of Pound's
religious beliefs, as expressed in the poetry and prose.  I am willing to
discuss this issue quite apart from his political committments.

I will even confess a certain attraction to many aspects of religious
outlook, and a willingness to look at Pound as a religious poet (in the
tradition of Dante, for instance).  There is a strong case to be made, I
think, that Pound literally believed in "the gods", and in "spirit".   I
have looked very carefully at a great deal of scholarly literature on the
subject, and I am strongly convinced that very serious errors have been made
regarding the genuine religious content of his work, and his incorporation
of religion into the Cantos.

My willingness to put the religious issue on one side, and the political and
social views on the other, stems from my belief that we should not adversely
judge Pound the person, Pound the spiritual being.   The Confucian aspect of
Pound's belief system, I would argue, is largely misunderstood.  People
mistakenly believe that Confucianism is devoid of religious or spiritual
content, that it is analagous to Western humanism (or secularism).  This is
a seriously misguided view, I think.   If one looks at Confucianism in
general, and at Pound's Confucianism in particular (apart from the overtly
political aspects of Confucianism) a very fascinating picture emerges.

It is a very complex picture, the picture of a man who synthesized,
constructed, or cobbled together one of most unique and original personal
religious visions in the history of Western letters.   Pound's religious
vision, as far as I can see, has received virtually none of the attention it
deserves, both for its originality and its complexity.  The problem stems in
part from the treatment which the topic "religion and literature" gets today
in so many quarters; and in part, from what appears to be the utter
incomprehensibility of Pound's vision to those who are unfamiliar with
certain details of Confucian religion and philosophy.  What is the precise
content of this odd religion which Pound worked out for himself over the
course of many decades, and which he incorporated into his Cantos?  The
issue is multi-faceted and many-layered.  I am interested if others, who are
sympathetic to paganism, or to neo-platonism, to Italian Catholicism (with
which Pound flirted in later years), to Quakerism, to Plotinus, or to other
religio-philosophical thinkers Pound mentions --- I am interested if they
agree that there is a religious content to the poem, that seeks to unify it
and give it coherence.


Regards,

Wei





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