It's so tedious to hear moralists divide up the high
ground among themselves. Here's a question if you have
room for it.
Why is it that it is primarily American scholars who
get indignant in discussing the issues of P's
anti-Semitism and fascism, and Italian scholars for
the most part discuss it without heat or moral fervor?
In terms of allocating space in their writing, they
attach no more importance to these two issues than to
any other episodes in P's checkered career. (The
perhaps exception is Bacigalupo's <Formed Trace>,
written of course in English.)
Could it be that the answer to this question is
related to such other questions as Why is it only
Americans think of WWII as "the good war"? Why was the
U.S. so late in acknowledging the holocaust? Why does
racism continue to erode the American body politic?
Why do we keep strapping the black men onto the death
gurneys?
Let's refresh our memory of "Reading Gaol." There it
is easy to see that Wilde summons the guilty thing in
the self as well as in society. It's easy to see
because the issue for which W. was crucified no longer
threatens us. Hypocrite lecteur, mon semblable, mon
frere.
Wayne
--- Daniel Pearlman <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> >
> >[Tim Romano writes:] The subject we've been
> discussing, in that it
> impinges upon the horrors of the holocaust, is an
> emotional one, and the
> attempts to demonize Pound (Morse, in my opinion),
> or conversely, the
> effort not to do so by separating the EVIL THINGS he
> did from his poetry
> thereby confining oneself to the heart's Clean Room
> (Dan Pearlman's
> compartmentalism) are natural, fully understandable
> emotional responses to
> that legacy.>
>
> Tim,
>
> I think it important to recognize that I do not
> separate his evil from
> his poetry; where it impinges, it impinges, and
> there isn't any Clean
> Room I'd confine myself or Pound to. What I'd like
> you to recognize
> is the juxtaposition of moral incompatibles in all
> of us, and sometimes
> in our works, so that our works sometimes get
> spoiled in part or in
> whole. It is the attitude of the Political
> Correctionists among
> today's litcrits that needs to see things in terms
> of black and white.
> I've never thrown out a good glass of wine because a
> tiny fly landed
> in it. (On the other hand, if it's a horsefly ...)
>
> ==Dan CleanRoom Pearlman
> HOME:
> Dan Pearlman
> 102 Blackstone Blvd. #5
> Providence, RI 02906
> Tel.: 401 453-3027
> email: [log in to unmask]
> Fax: (253) 681-8518
> http://www.uri.edu/artsci/english/clf/
>
> OFFICE
> Department of English
> University of Rhode Island
> Kingston, RI 02881
> Tel.: 401 874-4659
>
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