It's worth reading because it's a more rounded picture. Although I'd
long ago realised that the famous passage from the Pisan Cantos wasn't
an attainment of humility on Pound's part it was only during recent
re-readings prompted by discussions here that the penny finally
dropped for me that when he writes about the 'thou' being 'half black
half white' it really does mean the American soldiery being mixed
race. Pound is a fascist, he's facing the prospect of execution, and
he's going crazy because he's being held captive by 'niggers' as well
as whites. It isn't a very appealing picture. But at that the same
time it's poetry of at times immense power. That's problematic.
The thing I find with Pound is that he's too much in his own work: his
face sticks out too far at the reader, it's rather like looking at a
contorted visage projecting out of stone on a mediaeval wall of faces
of the damned. The Pisan Cantos is a magnificent distorted appalling
repulsive demented plangent picture of its time and its man.
2008/6/5 Anny Ballardini <[log in to unmask]>:
> didn't read it all, but seems quite accurate.
>
> On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 8:55 PM, David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> There's a sad account of god calling at:
>>
>>
>> http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2008/06/09/080609crbo_books_menand
>>
>> I hope he didn't shout at you.
>>
>>
>>
>> 2008/6/5 Roger Day <[log in to unmask]>:
>> > No, really. I do believe those little green men are about to land any
>> > second now. Oh, look, there's god outside the window calling.
>> >
>> > Roger
>> >
>> > On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 3:01 PM, David Bircumshaw
>> > <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> >> Galaxy Quest is quite funny, especially the first time you see it. I
>> >> take it you do realise science-fiction isn't really about the future?
>> >>
>> >> 2008/6/5 Roger Day <[log in to unmask]>:
>> >>> that should be the "commercial" as opposed to professional.
>> >>>
>> >>> re:Patrick Stewart
>> >>>
>> >>> I watched Galaxy Quest last night and all those sad nerds going to see
>> >>> PS. I wonder what they thought they were going to see. Man, where are
>> >>> the Vulcans?
>> >>>
>> >>> Sadly, I watched a ST variant during the week, and I kept calling the
>> >>> Klingons, Vulcans. I'm handing my geek credentials in now.
>> >>>
>> >>> Roger
>> >>>
>> >>> On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 10:49 AM, Roger Day <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>> >>>> Very little Shakespeare is played out on the professional west-end
>> >>>> stage these days. Most of it is in the Shakespearean churches.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 12:05 AM, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>> >>>>> Roger: This is silly. Shakespeare is performed on the profesional
>> stage in
>> >>>>> the US all the time. Two years ago I saw a wonderful production of As
>> You
>> >>>>> Like It in Tucson. There are sold out summer Shakespeare festivals in
>> >>>>> Oregon, New York, and Connecticut that I'm aware of. When I was a
>> teenager a
>> >>>>> complete cycle of the history plays was done at a major downtown
>> theater in
>> >>>>> NY. Lear was done on Broadway last year.
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> The ways of the censor tend to be unpredictable, perhaps because
>> >>>>> unpredictability is such a potent weapon.
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> Mark
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> At 05:40 PM 5/25/2008, you wrote:
>> >>>>>>
>> >>>>>> one swallow a summer does not make.
>> >>>>>>
>> >>>>>> On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 6:35 PM, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]
>> >
>> >>>>>> wrote:
>> >>>>>> > Right now the hottest ticket on Broadway is MacBeth, with Patrick
>> >>>>>> > Stewart in
>> >>>>>> > the title role. The run is sold out--even the scalpers are at a
>> loss.
>> >>>>>> >
>> >>>>>> > Mark
>> >>>>>> >
>> >>>>>> >
>> >>>>>> > At 12:47 PM 5/25/2008, you wrote:
>> >>>>>> >>
>> >>>>>> >> Those were the days - the Lord Chamberlain (member of the Royal
>> >>>>>> >> Household) and his malign influence on the British Theatre. In
>> another
>> >>>>>> >> email list, a long time ago, I mooted the theory that
>> shakespeare's
>> >>>>>> >> continuing popularity down the ages was due in part to the Bard's
>> >>>>>> >> acceptability before the LC. My logic, fwiw, ran thus: you want
>> to put
>> >>>>>> >> on a play and in those days, the least likeliest plays to get
>> banned
>> >>>>>> >> were Shakespeares. So, you play safe, put on the Bard. Until the
>> 60s,
>> >>>>>> >> when the LC threw away his blue pencil. Nowadays, S hardly
>> appears on
>> >>>>>> >> the commercial stage.
>> >>>>>> >>
>> >>>>>> >> American bannings are two a penny: their school libraries have
>> >>>>>> >> committees which are battle-grounds for the inclusion/exclusion
>> of
>> >>>>>> >> books. Harry Potter is a notorious example of this - the poor,
>> deluded
>> >>>>>> >> fundies trying to stave off the influence of the heathen (WTF?).
>> There
>> >>>>>> >> are lists on line of books that have been banned in the US. Are
>> there
>> >>>>>> >> any for the UK?
>> >>>>>> >>
>> >>>>>> >> Roger
>> >>>>>> >>
>> >>>>>> >> On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 9:38 AM, David Bircumshaw
>> >>>>>> >> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> >>>>>> >> > Lear was banned from performance between 1788-1820 when George
>> III
>> >>>>>> >> > was considered insane, and the link between stage and royalty
>> would
>> >>>>>> >> > be
>> >>>>>> >> > too close for official comfort. Contemporaneously with this Tom
>> Paine
>> >>>>>> >> > was also banned in England and, famously, Coleridge and
>> Wordsworth
>> >>>>>> >> > were watched for talking about Spinoza (Spy-noza)
>> >>>>>> >> >
>> >>>>>> >> > While 'Silas Marner' was banned in Anaheim CA in 1978 (?!) and
>> '1984'
>> >>>>>> >> > in Florida in 1981 because it was considered 'pro-communist'
>> (?)
>> >>>>>> >> >
>> >>>>>> >> >
>> >>>>>> >> >
>> >>>>>> >> > --
>> >>>>>> >> > David Bircumshaw
>> >>>>>> >> > Website and A Chide's Alphabet
>> >>>>>> >> > http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
>> >>>>>> >> > The Animal Subsides
>> http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
>> >>>>>> >> > Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>> >>>>>> >> >
>> >>>>>> >>
>> >>>>>> >>
>> >>>>>> >>
>> >>>>>> >> --
>> >>>>>> >> 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
>> >>>>>> >
>> >>>>>>
>> >>>>>>
>> >>>>>>
>> >>>>>> --
>> >>>>>> 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
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> --
>> >>>> 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
>> >>>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> --
>> >>> 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
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> David Bircumshaw
>> >> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
>> http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
>> >> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
>> >> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > 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
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> David Bircumshaw
>> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
>> http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
>> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
>> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Anny Ballardini
> http://annyballardini.blogspot.com/
> http://www.fieralingue.it/modules.php?name=poetshome
> http://www.moriapoetry.com/ebooks.html
> I Tell You: One must still have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing
> star!
>
--
David Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
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