In a message dated 06/14/2000 2:45:10 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: << We could also choose to emphasize the Fascist, anti-semitic, hierarchical, anti-democratic, anti-worker Pound OF THE CANTOS. Or we could choose (as you perhaps have done--- correct me if this is a mischaracterization) . . .we could choose to DE-emphasize the Fascist, anti-semitic, hierarchical, anti-democratic, anti-worker Pound OF THE CANTOS. It is a valid choice, if you wish to make it. But all that trash is in the Cantos. The prose essays and radio Rome Broadcasts and political statements simply make it easier to understand. >> it's a question of where one wants to put the emphasis, as I stated earlier. for example, the Pisan Cantos, which I think were the work that most influenced Pound's winning of the Bollingen Prize, are dedicated to Mussolini; this fact does not enhance them to me, to the contrary it embarrasses me, just as all of Pound's anti-Semitic ranting and support of fascism embarrasses me. but these are not the qualities that makes Pound a great poet, and that's what interests me. you have come very close to insinuating that those of us who're no longer interested in demonstrating yet again that Pound was, as you constantly repeat, "Fascist, anti-semitic, hierarchical, anti-democratic", are somehow engaged in a cover-up, as if this aspect of Pound has not been covered, ad nauseam, over and over. personally I don't know why certain Pound critics bother with Pound at all -- except that in the study of 20th century poetry to ignore him leaves a rather huge hole in one's resume. I also object to the absolutist tendency of your criticism. and while the broadcasts, etc., make it easier to understand the "Fascist, anti-semitic, hierarchical [and] anti-democratic" aspects of Pound, they do nothing to help us to understand Pound the poet. honestly, it's a drag when one reduces everything about Pound to conform to the political picture one has drawn of him, and allows him to be nothing but "Fascist, anti-semitic, hierarchical [and] anti-democratic". so even though I'm repeating myself, once again I remind you that these qualities have not gone unnoticed by the critical community at large, nor have they been ignored, the world is not endangered by Pound, the right-wing is not using his work as a source of inspiration and small children are not being force-fed a steady diet of Poundian garbage. if you want to think of Pound as sitting in his corner at St. Elizabeth's fuming at the jews and American democracy with spittle running down his chin, you're of course free to do so -- but don't expect any sympathy from those of us who want to take the best of Pound's innovations and get on with it. joe...