[I recently posted on Michael Johnson's take on the "Ezra Pound problem," and offered some of my own views, and now Bobby Campbell has weighted in, in a comment to Michael's original piece. With Bobby's permission, here are his comments, "reprinted" here. The other comments to Michael's piece are interesting, too. -- The Management.]
By BOBBY CAMPBELL
Special guest blogger
Another wonderful addition to an endlessly fascinating subject!
Just one small clarification, I believe RAW told me that "The Cantos" did not contain any of Pound's Antisemitism, not that he himself was not antisemitic.
It was great seeing RAW's view on this from the 60's! Much more aligned with what I would expect from him. It seems like by 2005 he was done with the discourse and just wanted to enjoy Pound's poetry and not open that particular can of worms again.
Given the current state of affairs, and being in middle age rather than old age, I feel more obligated to muck around in the worm bins :)))
Separating the dancer from the dance seems a particularly inexact science, with endless caveats and a full spectrum of gray shades, wherein each individual needs to decide for themselves on a case by case basis.
And for myself at least, I feel that the acceptance or rejection of questionable artists seems automatic, based on a reaction of the total synergetic organism, and that my reasons emerge after the gut/instinctual decision, as backwards justification/rationalization, or more charitably, as an observation of tendencies.
Ezra Pound's work doesn't seem to me to currently bolster or advance any active fascist or antisemitic movement. Even at the time, apparently, Mussolini found Pound extremely annoying, and didn't want anything to do with him. His forays into these lamentable ideologies seem to have only produced profoundly embarrassing ephemera, for which he paid a high cost, with no apparent lasting damage. (I'm willing to be wrong about this, but I don't get the sense that the current wave of authoritarian fervor is drawing much inspiration from Pound's Ideogrammic Method, et, al.)
My attitude towards Pound has always been that we should strip him for parts. Take what works and put it towards human purposes and trash the rest. RAW's oeuvre has provided a convenient medium for this, in fact, for several questionable thinkers who produced useful work worth utilizing.
Someone like J.K. Rowling, on the other hand, seems quite intent on leveraging her platform and wealth for directing targeted harm towards vulnerable people.
I think if the art supports the artist who continues to do harm with that support, that constitutes an easy "no thank you" from me.
1 comment:
Thank you for sharing this.
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