what are you reading now?

luka

luka

Well-known member
vimothy said:
They're hard work, aren't they, The Cantos. I recall someone said of Pound, "he makes art out of literature, not life", and I think there's some truth to that.
Click to expand...

I've heard this said, with more justice, of swinburne. To the extent to which it's true of pound I take it as a testament to how brilliant a reader he was. " the book should be a ball of light in ones hands "
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
"Probably the only economic problem needing emergency solution in our time is the problem of distribution. There are enough goods, there is superabundant capacity to produce goods in superabundance. Why should anyone starve?"

"CURIOUSLY ENOUGH, despite the long howls of those who used to complain about being oppressed and overworked, the last thing human beings appear to wish to share is WORK.

The last thing the exploiters want to let their employees divide is labour.

IT IS NEVERTHELESS UNDENIABLE that if no one were allowed to work (this year 1933) more than five (5) hours a day, there would be hardly anyone out of a job and no family without paper tokens potent enough to permit them to eat."

That's from Pound's ABC of Economics
 
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droid

droid

Well-known member
Yeah... never really pulled off a decent novel has Reynolds. Some cracking shorts though. Zima Blue is great.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that Pound's economics are not at root a fascist economics. As I said, the positive money mob are promoting the same ideas as Pound. http://www.positivemoney.org/how-money-works/how-banks-create-money/The
Not trying to say Pound wasn't really fascist just separating the economics from the politics a little bit.
When Pound met Mussolini he was trying to convert him. He was waving social credit pamphlets at him
 
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vimothy

vimothy

yurp
I'm not sure if that's quite right. "Ursura, sin against nature", etc. Rather fascist economics were generally quite progressive (which some conservative and libertarian commentators make hay with), although the ends to which they were directed were rather less so (which those same commentators tend to ignore).
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
The point I was labouring was that Pound does not take his economics from the fascists. To the contrary, he tries to foist his economics on Mussoliini. I'm not denying there is any overlap, in fact it would be odd if there was no overlap given his vociferous support for the fascists.
thats all i was pointing out,
 
C

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
This is reminding me that I still need to give Pound a go.

I'm reading the Greil Marcus "Lipstick Traces" and le Carre "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" a go. Both are amusing and breaking up the fact that "Last Temptation" was beginning to become difficult to read in class when class can't hold my attentions.

I also tried "Sickness Unto Death" by Kierkegaard but it got me nowhere. That was shitty "In class" reading though I imagine. I might pop it on my phone and give it a go next-time I'm traveling somewhere.
 
vimothy

vimothy

yurp
The BBC's adaptation of Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy, with Alec Guinness as George Smiley, is my all time favourite TV show.
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
I think you are right Luka, up to a point - Pound says that each country's system could be adapted - democracy included to work with his economic ideas which are based on providing work for everyone and thus allowing all to access goods and services and thus consume the surpluses which were being spoiled and destroyed because people couldn't afford to buy them. His idea was that working day/week should be shortened but keep wages the same and to remove the power of private banks, it all sounds a long way from fascism. However, this initial idea in 34/35 slowly mutates into something far more sinister and pernicious as he casts about for blame - the anti-Semitic attitudes harden. I'm only half way through this biog and Moody shows that Pound knows that what appeals about fascism in Italy is something that a Jeffersonian in the US could agree with. He wasn't calling for fascism in Britain or US in this period.
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
I hadn't seen that, Craner is right isn't he?

'Fascism and anti-Semitism are unavoidable forces in The Cantos that must be faced and understood; they do not reduce but complicate and deepen the poem’s power.'
 
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