Selective quotation seems the norm around here... I agree with Dan. Stoneking ----- Original Message ----- From: Daniel Pearlman <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, September 06, 1999 4:20 PM Subject: Re: Pound's castle > By selective quotation, you softpedal the antisemitism of the > 30s, which grew more and more severe. > > ==DP > > > At 12:09 PM 9/6/99 -0800, you wrote: > >If I may intrude my ignorance into this learned discussion one more time... > > > >EP's "anti-semitism" seems to me a much more complicated matter than > >either his defenders or detractors appear to realize. > > > >1.From his earliest letters, poems & articles, EP had an "anti-Judaic" > >positition,but I don't think this qualifies as "anti-semitic" because > >it was part of his general "anti-monotheist" stance, and (I think) > >always appears as part of a general rejection of Chrisitianity, Judaism > >and Islam --"all this Xtian-Jew-Moslem bunk"as he sez in one place. > >(Selected Leters) > >B. In a 1919 aritcle,EP says he prfers the Jews to the Xtians and Moslems > >because they haven't started a religious war in 2000 years (Selected Prose) > >C.The anti-monotheist position seems part of that aspect of EP > >which comes closest to conventional "liberalism": he dislikes monotheism > >because it appears historically linked to intolerance. > >[Okay: he also disliked monotheism on poetic grounds. His type > >of multilinguistic/multicultural sensibility resonated more to > >polytheistic imagery than to monotheistic abstraction > >or to Hindic monist abstraction.] > > > >2. In the 1930s, Pound repudiated anti-semitism specifically and > >precisely in several places. Having joined the anti-banker radicals > >as distinct from the anti-free-market radicals, Pound found he > >had a lot of anti-semitic allies. He was not quickly seduced by > >them. His 1930-1940 writings include several explicit rejectons > >of generalized anti-semitism, usually on the grounds that "the > >poorJews"were not responsible for the Rothschilds, and twice on > >the grounds that the worst "usurers" (money-coiners) were > >not all Jews and once on the grounds that some of them were "Aryan" > >-- a sarcastic repudiation of Hitler's ideas. (Collected Letters, Cantos, > >Terrel's Companion to the Cantos.) > > > >3. From about 1940 to somewhere in the 1960s EP clearly > >and unambigously expressed uncritical (bigoted) anti-semitism on > >many, many occasions. Only rarely did he pull back to the > >(relatively sane) position of only blaming certain banking families. > >He raved and ranted against "the Jews" in general. > >Some consider this immoral; some consider it insane; > >I can see some truth in both perspectives. > > > >4.From sometime in the 1960s (date unknown to me: I wd > >love to be informed by one of the more learned members of > >this list ) EP repudiated his anti-semitism. (See especially > >his interview with Allen Ginsberg) He then became silent, > >either in clinical depression (psychiatric view) or as > >pennance (religious view.) In either case, the punishment > >inflicted upon him by the US govt was continued by > >self-punishment. > > > >5. The anti-monotheist position disappeared around the same > >time as the anti-semitism. The religious imagery of Pound's > >paradise cantos very carefully remains non-sectarian, > >open to both monotheist and polytheist readings. > > > >This letter does not arrive at a verdict, and does not intend > >to move others toward a verdict or toward abandonning thier > >previous verdicts. I merely wish to share my own sense > >of the complexity and tragedy of Pound's "errors and wrecks." > >Most of the Cantos seem to me neither error nor wreck..... > > > > > >Most humbly, > > > > > >mark chan > > > > > >[log in to unmask] > > > > > >That is precisely what common sense is for, to be jarred into uncommon > >sense. One of the chief services whcih mathematics has rendered the > >human race in the past century is to put "common sense" where it > >belongs, on the topmost shelf next to the dust cannister labeled > >"discarded nonsense." > > Eric Temple Bell, Mathematics: Queen of the Sciences > > > > > >Las die Lasagne weiter fliegen! > > > >~ > > > HOME: > Dan Pearlman > 102 Blackstone Blvd. #5 > Providence, RI 02906 > Tel.: 401 453-3027 > email: [log in to unmask] > Fax: (253) 681-8518 > http://www.uri.edu/artsci/english/clf/ > > OFFICE > Department of English > University of Rhode Island > Kingston, RI 02881 > Tel.: 401 874-4659 >