----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2000 10:39
PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Re: Futurism
>From: James Deboo <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject:
Fw: Re: Futurism
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Date:
Sun, 23 Jan 2000 11:37:47 -1000
> I often wonder
how different the general view of Pound might be =
>today if he'd felt
himself sufficiently at home in Italy (or anywhere) =
>to abandon his US
citizenship and obtain an Italian passport.
I think he felt at home in
Italy. As far as I can tell, he maintained
his U.S. citizen because
being an American was extremely important to
him. It was one of the
core elements of his identity and certainly of
his public persona.
Much as he loved Italy, he could never have thought
of himself as an
Italian.
> As far as =
>I can
tell his main reason for supporting the fascists was a desire to =
>end
the war - the friends he lost in WW1 that war in, say, Hugh Selwyn
=
>Mauberley, perhaps suggests that he saw the war as unnecessary and
=
>wasteful, the result of a capitalist system resembling a corrupt
=
>communist one, with absolute rulers and corporations who kept their
=
>workers so much in the dark, and offered them a ready-made,
=
>responsibility-free life in return for their money, that they didn't
=
>really know what they were fighting for anyway, and he couldn't bear
to =
>see everyone going back home to the same old lies all over
again.=20
The last lines here more or less accurately summarize E.P.'s
attitude
toward war in general, although this would not quite have been his
way of
expressing it. However as to his support for Fascism, what you
say is
pretty much the opposite of what was true.
Throughout the
Thirties, Pound admired Mussolini in particular and
Fascism in general,
just as many of the leading intellectuals in Europe
did. And for that
matter, so did much of the news media, including the
Luce publications ---
TIME, LIFE, and FORTUNE. Today we think of Fascism
primarily in terms
of its brutality, but people during the erly Thirties
were much more aware
of the fact that Fascism had brought Italy out of
chaos and brought about a
number of important practical constructive
results, such as draining the
swamps and, yes, incidentally, getting
the railroad service to run in an
orderly manner. Furthermore, Mussolini
had enormous personal
charm. The Fascists had widespread support from
the Italian people,
even though there were also forces which vehemently
opposed them. I
think that Pound personally tended to come mostly in
contact with the
supporters of Fascism rather than with the opponents.
The brutality of
the Fascists in Italy was quite real, but it was
mild compared to what
existed in Germany and other Fascist countries.
The attitude of most of
the world toward Italian Fascism changed in 1935
when Mussolini invaded
Ethiopia. From that point on, much of the world
started looking at
Italy more critically, and started become more aware
that although
Mussolini said really good things that most people liked,
he was actually
an opportunist whose primary interest was in
maintaining his power, and
that the actual actions of the government
often did not accord very well
with Mussolini's benevolent speeches.
E.P., however, had little respect
for the kind of people who were now
criticizing Mussolini. As always
in his life, once he had adopted a
particular attitude, he had very little
inclination to reexamine it
critically.
Pound admired Fascism
because he loved Italy. Furthermore, he saw
Mussolini as an example
of the sort of strong ruler, such as Sigismondo
Malatesta (and, for that
matter, Confucius), who he had always admired in
history. He was
opposed to the war partly, as you say, because he was
on general principle
opposed to war, but primarily because he loved
Italy, even though his
primary allegiance, even during the period when
he made his radio
broadcasts, was to the United States. He was in the
position of
someone who sees two friends, both of which he loves
dearly, getting into
what seems like a senseless fight.
He did believe that the United
States had fallen under the control of
evil forces, especially
Roosevelt. His attitude toward Roosevelt was
in fact quite widespread
in the United States during the Thirties.
Even during the Fifties, I often
encountered people in the United
States who always referred to Roosevelt as
"the son of a bitch." But
obviously Roosevelt also had many
supporters who enabled him to win
elections. (There were a lot
more people who despised the Republican
Party than those who despised
Roosevelt, although a lot of people
despised
both.)
> The Futurists wanted a new artform- they
wanted, in Pound's words, =
>to 'make it new'; and, certainly in the
visual arts, their impact has =
>been enormous. The Fascists also wanted
to make it new; as, I suppose, =
>did Hitler. So did Pound; and whereas
he (and, of course, everyone in =
>their right mind (dramatic irony
intended)) despised Hitler and perhaps =
>didn't see quite eye to eye
with Mussolini on all things, he did see =
>that the utopian ideals
behind Itatian Fascism, while quite =
>unsupportable, were also, if
advanced and supported, likely to bring the =
>war to a rapid end. After
all, Alan Bullock's book Hitler: a study in =
>Tyranny closes by saying
that Hitler's chief aim was to destroy the =
>structure of Europe and
replace it with something new, and that in this, =
>he probably
succeeded.=20
Pound's attitude toward Hitler varied. At first, he
disliked Hitler,
saying that he was too hysterical (which, in retrospect,
is a little like
being opposed to nuclear bombs because they make too much
noise), but
later, even after the war when the existence of the death camps
became
known, he expressed an admiration for Hitler, although to the best
of my
knowledge this admiration was expressed only in private letters to
good
friends. (I never heard him say anything good about Hitler at
St.
Elizabeths, but I never heard him condemn him either.)
--Lee
Lady