Eugene:

Is your reference to Pound's fascist tendencies a reference to Pound's naive
political theories, his obsessive economic theories or his destructive
anti-Semitism?   To my mind each of these is a bright and individual fault.
Faults that as you say should not blind one to Pound's poetic genius.

Pound's Fascism is not usually the actual  point of irritation for most
people.   It is Pound's anti-Semitism that generally starts the uproar.  Not
wanting to seem to defend a defunct political theory but anti-Semitism is no
more a unique descriptor of Fascism than it was of Soviet Communism where
anti-Semitism also found a home.  Many of the founders of modern Israel were
refugees of Soviet anti-Semitism.   Communism's reputation with religious
and ethnic groups is every bit as bloody as Fascism.  One needs only look at
China where total extermination of a religious group is again an
acknowledged goal of a State.  The silence of world governments is a
remarkable reminder of prior silences.   If only the actual applications of
Marxism were as benign as the academic study of it and if only we were able
to profit from the lessons of history.

Rick Seddon
McIntosh, NM, USA
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, August 08, 2001 8:17 PM
Subject: Re: Yeats and personal life--reply


>Kate,
>
>blemish--like Pound's fascist tendencies--to perceive the larger expanse.
>
>Best,
>Eugene Schlanger
>