In a message dated 05/30/2000 3:05:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< One would have to work it out, of course.  I think Pound would have been
deeply interested in the question.
 >>

this is far from clear.  Pound's principal interest in China was historical;
there is, as I recall, very little in Pound's writing on contemporary China.
I'm not speaking to the odd political remark, although in truth I don't
recall many of them, either.


<<
Such an analysis might require the serious consideration of these
propositions:

1.  That an understanding of China is essential to an understanding of Pound

2. That an understanding of the laborer’s plight is essential to
understanding the nature of Poundian economics (assuming, additionally that
one is interested in that subject).

3.  That Pound’s reading of history (since Cantos is , in his words, “a poem
which contains history”) has some relevance to our interpretation of
contemporary events.

4.  That Pound’s desire to see Fascism victorious over Communism and
Capitalist “democracy” --in the West and the East ---   is one central facet
of his work.

If one is not willing to consider the validity of these assertions, then, of
course, there will be no relationship between the issues. >>

such claims as these are highly problematic.  my point is that there is no
clear connection between Pound and current Chinese issues, and indeed, beyond
your cryptic "one would have to work them out", you offer no examples.
beyond this, such "working out" would, at best, be merely speculative, and
would no doubt be intensely colored by your obvious bias against Pound, and
by your acknowledged conflation of Pound with Confucius, a serious flaw that
(from my point of view) invalidates the bulk of your arguments.


<<
 I wonder if any of the media you are exposed to, or if the mainstream
 media--as far as you know--broadcast a single interview by a Chinese worker
 (who was not under the thumb of the government).
  >>


well, yes...  the Washington Post, and most of the network television outlets
regularly offer interviews with the dissident of the month -- it's quite
chic, actually.

as regards your criticism of Pound, I shall leave you with one last bit of
advice, given to me by the late Rudd Fleming, a confidante and collaborator
of Pound while he was incarcerated at St. Elizabeth's hospital: 'one has an
obligation to make others as good as one can make them; only then does one
have the ability to see them clearly, and the right to discuss them at all."


joe brennan...