Pound had a completely fucked-up sense of economics as well. Kenner
mentions that Pound followed the teachings of one the lesser
economists; which fed into these usury arguments.
Wagner, OTOH, seems to make his antisemitism a part of his aesthetics,
a lethal load; the Jew as other, a scrape-goat to bind the "greater
germany" (which was only an idea at the time) together. Not sure that
Pound went as far as to shape his whole work into a denial of Jewry.
I suppose it is easier to exclude people like this from one's
thinking, kinda avoids the ickyiness of the whole subject, that
descent into becoming an apologist which I'm trying to avoid.
Roger
On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 11:40 AM, Joseph Duemer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Antisemitism runs through many of Pound's later Cantos, not so much in
> explicit insults directed at Jews (though those exist) as in the pervasive
> cant of anti-usury ramblings. Wendy Flory, writing in *The Cambridge
> Companion to Ezra Pound*, counts only three instances of antisemitism in the
> Pisan Cantos, though she counts only direct insults, not passages in which
> anti-Jewish sentiments are merely assumed. She is also careful to couch
> Pound's antisemitism in terms of psychosis.
>
> jd
>
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 6:50 AM, Roger Day <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > I thought fuck-up was a prime requirement for being an artist.
> > Flippancy aside, does an artist's CV really affect the way one reads
> > their work? What accommodation does one make in dealing with an
> > "unpleasant" poet?
> >
> > On a side-note, does Pound's anti-semitism actually make it to his
> > work? I've read that a case can be made for Wagner's anti-semitism
> > being embedded in his operas, each a propagandist piece but Pound?
> >
> > I suppose as well that we could sit pretty and deny that anti-semitism
> > (or whatever nastiness you care to mention) does not exist. Baraki's
> > words may not be to our taste, still, they deserve an hearing as much
> > as the next poet's. I do not validate his anti-semitism (which I'm
> > failing to spell, sadly), but to look at whatever nightmare he has in
> > the face, acknowledge it's existence, see if it is reflected within
> > and try and find a way out.
> >
> > Roger
> >
> > On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Dominic Fox <[log in to unmask]>
> > wrote:
> > > Baraka vs Pound: who's the mostest anti-semitic?
> > >
> > > I guess a poet can be good *and* a fuck-up?
> > >
> > > Dominic
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/
> > "She went out with her paint box, paints the chapel blue
> > She went out with her matches, torched the car-wash too"
> > The Go-Betweens
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Joseph Duemer
> Professor of Humanities
> Clarkson University
> [sharpsand.net]
>
--
My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/
"She went out with her paint box, paints the chapel blue
She went out with her matches, torched the car-wash too"
The Go-Betweens
|