Who knew Ezra Pound was such a funny guy?
On America: "We get from every village the most ruthless and the most energetic. The merely discontented stop in England."
"As every living writer either has written, or is writng, on sex, sex, sex, till there is no end of x's..."
After complaining about and critiquing flawed architecture in New York, we get this simple paragraph: "I found it impossible to make a younger member of the architect's firm understand any of this.... But he will die, and Allah the all merciful will send us another generation." (I just love the image of an irate Pound pedantically yelling at some secretary that he doesn't like the building this guy didn't even design.)
On "literary" magazines in the early 1900s:
"It is well known that in the year of grace 1870 Jehovah appeared to Messrs Harper and Co. and to the editors of 'The Century', 'The Atlantic', and certain others, and spake thus: 'The style of 1870 is the final and divine revelation. Keep things always just as they are now'. And they, being earnest, God-fearing men, did abide by the words of the Almighty, and great credit and honour accrued unto them, for had they not divine warrant! And if you do not believe me, open a number of 'Harpers' for 1888 and one for 1908. And I defy you to find any difference, save on the page where the date is."
It's shocking how much I'm liking Pound. While I'll admit I haven't started the Cantos yet, his early poetry is quite stirring, and his essays are really amusing. Who knows, maybe it'll keep through the rest?
Or I may go insane trying to figure the rest of it out. Stay tuned.
(In other news, I took five hours off on Monday to read the new Star Wars novel. It was truly glorious.)
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4 comments:
Ok, that last part reminds me how truly rad you are.
I like Pound as a character. Can't you just imagine him constantly harassing Eliot for being such a wuss?
I personally like to imagine him and Hemingway playing pranks on Gertrude Stein, like egging her house or leaving flaming bags of dog droppings on her doorstep.
Pound and Hemingway. Like Wedding Crashers for the modernist set.
If you think the image of Pound lecturing the architect is funny, you should read some of his actual letters--to say Zukofsky or Williams. They're so polemical and ranting about everything--on top of which he insists on spelling everything phonetically in various "accents"--that they are often nigh incomprehensible.
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