 |
 |
Yes, Robert, but Eliot's interest was in a *failed* Coriolanus, rather than a real Duce, which makes for interesting poetry. Eliot was most definitely racist, vide his speeches at Harvard in 30s, and a political authoritarian fantasist, but he was most definitely NOT a fascist. best David On 5 March 2018 at 23:40, Hampson, R <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > For me, coming to Pound in the late 60s, part of the interest was > precisely the fact that the fascism was inescapable. With Pound, any > engagement with the Cantos had to be in the light of his fascism - whereas > with Eliot and Yeats, the way they were taught, the material available on > them, there were all kinds of escape routes into myth and symbol - > avoidances of the political - despite, for example, Eliot's interest in > Corioloanus. > > > The volume Pound/Olson was instructive: Olson's visits to St > Elizabeth's and his efforts to negotiate the poetry and the politics. > > > I can't imagine teaching Pound without mentioning his anti-semitism and > fascism. > > > > Robert > ------------------------------ > *From:* British & Irish poets <[log in to unmask]> on > behalf of Sean Carey <[log in to unmask]> > *Sent:* 05 March 2018 23:24:59 > *To:* [log in to unmask] > *Subject:* Re: Ezra Pound will remain in the literary canon I expect > > but those who teach his work should not avoid his activities during World > War Two or up until his death. To gloss over Pound’s words & deeds is to > let the dead and wounded down in a macro war that killed millions. As the > memories of WW2 fade from the folk memory the lessons of it all are also > being lost. Our species sank to depths of depravity & brutality which > surfaced again in the Balkans. Then on Europe’s shores are the graves of > those trying to flee the Syrian war & in The Med their bones lie under the > sea. > > To look at various nations in Europe the popular mood veers to populism > with Britain or Ireland no exceptions. We have failed the refugees with our > inability to embrace the suffering masses in a crisis. The endless surge of > hard right parties air brushed and well funded has denied our hopes of > ‘constant progress’. > > The Ezra Pound that promoted racial & religous hatred is indeed beyond > punishment but his work must not be taught out of context. To make no > stance on Pound is to avoid his behaviour as as ‘of its time’. World War > One did not become an object lesson or ‘the war to end all wars’. Instead > we ended up with another war that spread well beyond Europe all over again. > > What emerged from the Italian elections yesterday is sobering & worrying & > we must not assume it will never happen overhere. There is no point in > championing Paul Celan while teaching Ezra Pound on the same literary > platform. Casa Pound have brought home to us the risks of not imposing a > moral basis in our views on Ezra. We do it in other areas of thought & > discourse & must not let Pound off the hook. > > > > sc > > Sent from AOL Mobile Mail > Get the new AOL app: mail.mobile.aol.com > > On Monday, 5 March 2018, Tim Allen <0000002899e7d020-dmarc- > [log in to unmask]> wrote: > > I mostly agree with this Peter. I think people tend to forget the mental > demolishing that WW1 caused among intellectuals - and for every one that > went one way (left) another went right. Despite my own lefty politics I > have never gone in for black and white retrospective moralising. > > Cheers > > Tim > > On 5 Mar 2018, at 01:07, Peter Riley wrote: > > To put it as briefly as possible: a number of European intellectuals > artists and writers engaged with fascism including anti-semitism in the > 1920s and early 1930s. If you look at their birth dates and careers most > of them had been directly involved in the 1914-18 war and had recognised it > as the worst thing that had ever happened, and as a result of this > unbelievable, soul-destroying experienced knew that it must never happen > again. Lewis blamed the drift of European philosophy in the first decade of > the century towards the validation of instinct (rather than either reason > or emotion) for the 14-18 war. From the information received at the time > German national socialism seemed like an offer of stability and an > alternative to a mounting global instinctive primitivism and thus might > assure peace. They were wrong, of course, as they mostly soon realised, and > retracted and withdrew. To treat these errors as simply pieces of > nastiness for which they must be for ever punished, is very unrealistic. > > >