as i understand it, Pound saw the role of the poet very
much in the confucian sense of being one who advised the king...
the poet was an embodiment of the ideal of the chun tzu -
or "superior man"... and his advice on political, moral and
social issues was as important his poetical creations...
they were, in fact, not separate.
 
still, it is important that we always keep alive to this tension
which exists between life and art... it is an outward manifestation
of the inward tension that exists between one's habits and
one's unconscious. should pound scholarship overlook his
political pronouncements simply because there are so few
of them in the Cantos? (as has been suggested)...  i think
the Cantos are political through and through... it's just that
some versions are more palatable than others.  if Pound
sought audience with the king.duce/president/chancellor/etc.,
it was because he felt his ideas were worth listening to...
why should we overlook them as being unimportant?
 
Stoneking
 
 
---- Original Message -----
From: Bill Freind <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 1999 10:25 AM
Subject: Re: Poundian Criticism (An Overview)
 
 
> > It is, I believe, an obvious truth that our Poundian scholars, for the
last
> > twenty years, have not performed the function of scholars but of
critics.
> > This is, in and of itself, a remarkable thing. Those who should preserve
the
> > poet also wish to judge him. And what is the basis of their criticism?
Is it
> > on the basis of manuscripts newly discovered, or textual difficulties
finally
> > resolved? Has some discovery been made about the poems? Is it, in short,
on
> > the basis of scholarship?
> >
> > No. These scholars wish to criticize Pound because of his life, and more
> > particularly his political sympathies. Thus, the poet has been
re-evaluated
> > on the basis of moral criteria, which in the realm of literary judgment,
is
> > the oldest fallacy.
>
> No -- the oldest fallacy is that great literary works transcend moral and
> political issues. Pound himself certainly didn't believe that, so I think
it
> takes an extraordinarily willful reading to claim the Cantos have somehow
been
> tainted by political readings.
>
> Bill Freind
>