In a message dated 7/29/99 10:08:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: << Sojourners, your three-liner seems intended as a deadly put-down of all Pound's life and work, and all who are in any way interested in him, in one blow, yes? As you'll know if you've scanned the archive of this list, or followed it at all with any sincerity, there's been quite a lot of discussion which has been critical of Pound over the years - rather more articulate than yours, to be sure, but stuff which you should be able to relate to, unless you're just mouthing off. I've no idea to what extent you've read Pound in any depth - maybe you were forced to study him at an early age, maybe you just tried it in a bookstore and found it too hard for you - you wouldn't be the first in either case - but tell me: what's your considered and informed reading, coming where it does in the man's work, of the part-line: - And that the truth is in kindness. - I think what got up the noses of various listmembers - myself included - was your rudeness in dropping your unsigned calling card on us three times. So - we were just saying we wanted to talk directly and specifically about Pound's poetry, when you chanced by... Richard Caddel Durham UK >> well put..... criticisms like the one richard is responding to reveal more about the critic than the subject under consideration. to criticize pound in any meaningful way is to make him as honorable as one honestly can; only then will the true magnitude of pound's malevolence come into focus. perhaps the most devastating criticism of pound's embrasure of fascism was made by pier paolo passolini in his last film: Salo: 120 Days of Sodom.