Ezra Pound's daughter fights to wrest the renegade poet's legacy from fascists

[microrobert]

Ezra Pound's daughter fights to wrest the renegade poet's legacy from fascists

The 86-year-old Mary De Rachewiltz is taking on a band of Italian neofascists who are using her father's name

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/14/ezra-pound-daughter-fascism

[The Ripper]

Ezra Pound's daughter fights to wrest the renegade poet's legacy from fascists

The 86-year-old Mary De Rachewiltz is taking on a band of Italian neofascists who are using her father's name

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/14/ezra-pound-daughter-fascism

Stupid cunt.

Ok, may be a bit harsh, but Pound was a fascist sympathizer and an intellectual heavy weight. I don't see how Pound could be viewed with that part of him completely isolated. Pound the poet and Pound the fascist are the same Pound.

[Joe McCarthy]

Pound was indeed a fascist. A fascist, a seditionist, and a traitor. He was the Tokyo Rose of Italy.

[The Ripper]

Pound was indeed a fascist. A fascist, a seditionist, and a traitor. He was the Tokyo Rose of Italy.

A great man, you say?

[Joe McCarthy]

A great man, you say?

A great poet, certainly. Eliot and Yeats were also fascist sympathizers, albeit less blatantly so than Pound.

[Fortis in Arduis]

Pound was indeed a fascist. A fascist, a seditionist, and a traitor. He was the Tokyo Rose of Italy.

Do you see fascism as unpatriotic?

If so, why?

Why should Pound be seen in this light, if he was an ex-pat?

[The Ripper]

Salutation


O generation of the thoroughly smug
and thoroughly uncomfortable,
I have seen fishermen picnicking in the sun,
I have seen them with untidy families,
I have seen their smiles full of teeth
and heard ungainly laughter.
And I am happier than you are,
And they were happier than I am;
And the fish swim in the lake
and do not even own clothing.


Ezra Pound

o/

[Joe McCarthy]

Do you see fascism as unpatriotic?

If so, why?

Why should Pound be seen in this light, if he was an ex-pat?

Fascism was supremely patriotic for Italy. It exalted the nation, hearkened back to the Roman Empire, and aimed to restore Italian glory after centuries of abasement and servitude. Ultimately though it was romantic nonsense that radically overestimated Italy's martial abilities. It's been said that Hitler was a poor leader leading a great people whereas Mussolini was a great leader leading a poor people, but a great leader would have recognized his people were not up to the tasks he set for them. In armed conflict these 'Romans' were clobbered by American democrats.

Which of course leads to the next point: America is an anti-fascist country, just as we are anti-communist. The fascists were our enemies. To be a patriotic American and be a fascist is irreconcilable, and though Pound was an ex-pat (ex-pat in his case standing for ex-patriot) he was still an American giving aid and comfort to an enemy in war.

On a side note, Pound's support for Mussolini didn't even make sense. He blamed British capitalists for the Great War, claimed to hate war, then supported the arch-warmonger Mussolini as he defied the British led League of Nations. If the point was to promote peace, it certainly wasn't the right tack to support Mussolini, who was militarily aggressive even before Hitler.

[Fortis in Arduis]

... America is an anti-fascist country, just as we are anti-communist. The fascists were our enemies. To be a patriotic American and be a fascist is irreconcilable ...

I could say the same of Britain, but it wouldn't be true because British fascists were patriots.

America could easily have had its own brand of fascism.

Fascism took different forms in different countries, and America could have averted its descent into the stagnant bi-partite hyper-capitalist system that Americans currently suffer under.

Wasn't FDR a crypto-fascist of sorts, or America's answer to such?

2008, the sub-prime mortgage disaster, and the coming derivatives bubble could have been avoided.

Fascism is out-dated and over, but I do not see how being American and patriotic would conflict with being a fascist.

[LadyOscar]

mha...

[Richard]

I like politicians keep their hands off poetry and literature.