>I agree with Jeff above if the items are enumerated in temporal order, >but not always if in atemporal absolute one. that is what i intended. >It is most unlikely that >young boys be influenced by parents or by local intellectual environment >less than by books, while it is as much unlikely that a person of 45 or >55 years old remains to be influenced only by the ambience during his/her >childhood, and not by books. this however, i'm not so sure: i think the influence (esp in pound... his love and lasting firendship with his folks throughout his life...) does remain a very important factor if not checked. but i agree tho that it would not be the only influence. >In the case of Pound, his anti-semitism >became more and more vehement after around 1930. Interest in money is >clearly one of the driving forces. But I guess he was probably influenced >by some "Jew conspiracy" book also. And I believe that if the poet read >the book by Webster when he was on an early stage of his anti-semitism,it >would have exerted an influence on him. May be it drove him up to the >next stage, or it confirmed his hitherto wobbly belief in conspiracy >theory. and thus it is built upon by the other influences over time. but this brings up a whole other question: would pounds nagating of linear time undermine this? did his belief in a non-linear mode of thinking sink in deep enough to disrupt any kind of order like this? trying to find that barb of time book... jeff. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are no hierarchies, no infinite, no such many as mass, there are only eyes in all heads to be looked out of -charles olson, from "letter 6" (of the maximus poems)