D Wellman wrote:


<<  In my last post I think I made pretty much the same connection as JK
does, by means of a forward leap to the demigod (I cannot make it cohere),
demi-god and centaur in both cases a self-deprecating image. >>

I have often had questions about the extent to which the statement "I am not
a demigod" should be considered a "self-deprecating " remark.

Just how "humble" or self-deprecating is it to admit, "I am not a demi-god"?
  Should it not have been obvious to Pound, and to his associates that
Pound, although a very gifted poet, is not, and never has been a demi-god?

Does the statement "I am not a demi-god", viewed from the purview of the
Greco-Roman pagan tradition, suggest a sort of "hubris" or spiritual pride
(pride in remission perhaps, but pride, nonetheless)?

Is the realization contained in Canto 81, a tragic realization, such as that
reached by Oedipus, who believes he is a demi-god, or acts like a demi-god,
until driven to face his mortality?

Would it be accurate to say that Pound sees himself as a sort of demi-god,
whose goal is portray a serious of historico-mythical exemplars, many of
which (begining with Odysseus) are semi-divine.  Recall in the opening of
Pisan, Mussolini is equated with Manes.  Elsewhere in the Cantos, many of
the collaborators with Hitler and Mussolini (like Petain) are equated with
Confucian Saints (a fact which greatly irritates the Chinese scholar of the
Cantos, Achilles Fang).

So my question is, "What does 'I am not a demi-god,' actually mean?" I am
tempted to react, "OF course you are not a demi-god.  What made you believe
any sane person would think otherwise?"

Are we still so prone to worshipping human beings as the Imperial Romans
were, that some of our poets have dared to think we should worship them?
Have poets like Pound expected adoration, or worship, simply because they
believed at one time that they were divine?


---Wei






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