Tuesday, November 26, 2013
The New Age, November 20 1913
The New Age's myriad pseudonyms always begs the question: why bother? Why write under so many names without revealing one's identity? To this point I've thought that it's probably because there are only a few writers who wish to give the impression of being a group with a consensus: pseudonyms as rhetoric. I still think that is true, but a brief note in "Readers and Writers" (on page 82) makes me wonder if there are also legal reasons. I've assumed that when an article appears without attribution, or attributed to The New Age, it's written by the editors (Orage and Hastings). This small column, though, is by the editor on getting sued for libel by "Mr. Thomas, the Assistant Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen." In it, the editor disowns the "Open Letter to Railwaymen" published on Oct. 30 under the name The New Age. The editor also explains that the journal has no money to pay damages, and suggests that Mr. Thomas publish his grievances in the journal itself instead. There's a whiff of fear in this: "Equally invariably--including the latest--the Editor of The New Age has never written a word of the offending passages himself!" This despite admitting earlier that the open letter was an editorial.
Other interesting bits:
Maud Allan the famous dancer is going to tour India, which has offended English propriety (even more than her Salome already had) because they think it's shameful to have an Englishwoman dance in front of Indians. The New Age, via Lional de Fonseka, calls bullshit on this, pointing out that India has more refined attitudes toward dance than England (oddly, arguing from the point that Indian culture looks down on dancers. True? Not to my knowledge).
Beatrice Hastings' occasional column "Tesserae" appears in this issue, this time on war and feminism. She accuses militant feminists of encouraging war in order to get more power at home, calling them "blackleg industrialists." I've always heard the narrative that women were liberated in part because their labor was needed as men left to fight the world wars. Hastings implies that people saw this coming, and that feminists encouraged it. Intense thought.
AER contributes a pleasant rant against germ theory and for homeopathic medicine, including that we should "treat the patient, not the disease," a catchphrase that's still being tossed around.
Anthony Ludovici is really happy about the opening of an exhibit of Blake's artwork at the Tate. Nice to see him happy, for once.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Happy 1st Birthday, Little Review Reviews!
It's been a year since my first post on this blog, so I'll take a moment to reflect. I think the blessing/curse of an immersion project like this is that it has no clear boundaries determining what should be included or excluded, and this means that whatever I do is still unsatisfying. There's always more to read, more or less available.
My new-year resolution is to begin using the physical archives of journals at U. Washington, and provide occasional posts on other journals that I can access there. Wish me luck.
Thanks again to everyone--.
My new-year resolution is to begin using the physical archives of journals at U. Washington, and provide occasional posts on other journals that I can access there. Wish me luck.
Thanks again to everyone--.
The New Age, November 13 1913
My readings of The New Age have reached a point where I'm more interested in how the journal conceives of itself and its contents than in its contents themselves. You may recall how Pound was savagely satirized by Beatrice Hastings (as T.K.L.) while he printed his essays on French avant garde poetry. This week's New Age includes a gem of an explanation, one that is further confirming my developing thesis about the magazine (more on that soon). I will quote the relevant passage at some length:
"Was it right, I have been asked, for The New Age to allow "T.K.L." to "mimick" Mr. Pound's articles on Parisian writers while these were still being published? My own answer is, Yes, and with more reasons than I can set down." Here Orage (as R.H.C.) explains that they publish Belloc's criticism of Guild Socialism, and nobody thinks it is odd, so "Why, then, should it be thought strange to publish Mr. Pound's articles and to subject them to criticisms while they were still before our readers? But Mr. Pound, it may be said, was not attacking The New Age, he was only defending certain tendencies in French poetry. This view assumes too readily the eclecticism of The New Age which is much more apparent than real." [Note: this is an incredible admission, as it lifts the veil between the lamination of articles and opinions and the reader, and perhaps the quotation marks around "T.K.L." are a significant admission of pseudonimity] "We have, as discerning readers know, as serious and well-considered a 'propaganda' in literature as in economics or politics. Why should it be supposed that the economic writers are jealous to maintain their views and to discredit their perversions or antitheses; and the critics of literature be indifferent? It will be found, if we all live long enough, that every part of The New Age hangs together; and that the literature we despise is associated with the economics we hate as the literature we love is associated with the form of society we would assist in creating. Mr. Pound--I say it with all respect--is an enemy of The New Age. His criticisms may not be, like Mr. Belloc's, direct and personal, but by the oblique or the tacit, it is even more, in my view, inimical. For such as read the duel between Mr. Pound and "T.K.L." was a debate of extraordinary intensity. The weapons on neither side were arguments, for the debate was on the plane of imagination, not reason..." (51).
I have a feeling that this passage will form the kernel of an article, or something, that I've been considering for a while now. I'll take a page from Orage and say that I've referenced my idea before, and for such as read my blog, it should be pretty obvious...
To return to content:
There's a characteristic conflation of aesthetic and moral development in the first article, the political "Notes of the Week" by the editors. In it t(he)y blame the philistine upper classes, that instead of offering charity should "let it be by devoting themselves to the spreading of ideas, good taste, and good manners by example." Hardly a call to revolution, but the stakes rise later in the article, which claims that the organization of labor is "more important nationally than the German Navy to-day or the Napoleonic armies of the day before yesterday." While the Labour Party doesn't collapse the way The New Age predicts, and trade unions don't abandon the political process, I wonder how this statement will look at 200 years hence, rather than the 100 we've got.
Harold Lister contributes a piece fusing the nature-vs-nurture argument with socialism, in that he believes the environment is more important than heredity (against eugenics), and goes on to use that as proof that everyone's general ugliness proves that the environment is awful. He blames coal, hopes that the guild system will set things right so we can be beautiful again.
There's an odd speculative column about miners demanding a living wage in 1917, which of course is four years away... by "Recorder."
Hastings contributes a kafakesque short story about being hauled before a morality court. Published under pseudonym Alice Morning.
All for now, there's a lot more in there, but I have to do some other work!
Thursday, November 14, 2013
The New Age, November 6 1913
This issue has a lot of the usual stuff, all the crises are continuing, etc. etc. I'm going to note a couple interesting tidbits, but not do a very thorough review.
As always, I have to mention what Beatrice Hastings is up to. This time, she's explaining why "equal pay for equal work" is ridiculous because menstruation means women can never really do "equal work." More on that line from pages 12-14, if you want to see 1913 antifeminism up close (and have a strong stomach for outdated arguments). It makes me feel badly for BH, though, to constantly run herself down. There's something deeply wrong here, and I have my suspicions about their roots, but I'm no biographer.
"Views and Reviews" this week is a lengthy discussion of Malthusianism. Strange sometimes what people debated so recently: the author explains that a new study proves that large families do not inherently cause disease because rich people with large families are healthy. Perhaps more interestingly, the article confronts the issue of the lowering birthrate in the context of longer life expectancy, explaining that the one will largely balance the other. This, naturally, leads to a discussion of sexual practice and whether masturbation and contraception can make you sick. Answer? "Whatever may be the truth of the matter, I cannot pretend to decide; but it seems wise, when doctors differ, to perform functions naturally" (16).
Lastly, that scoundrel-y Oscar Levy contributes a parable about how removing danger from life allows the lower classes to breed more quickly, which in turn crowds out the aristocrats (and even the more effective working men). Oscar's parable of the fishes (which he derives from art critic C. J. Holmes): if you take the pike out of a pond to help the trout grow, the perch will swarm the trout and smaller perch will drive out bigger perch until you have a pond that's just useless. I wonder what he'll say about the war, when it starts?
That's all for now...
As always, I have to mention what Beatrice Hastings is up to. This time, she's explaining why "equal pay for equal work" is ridiculous because menstruation means women can never really do "equal work." More on that line from pages 12-14, if you want to see 1913 antifeminism up close (and have a strong stomach for outdated arguments). It makes me feel badly for BH, though, to constantly run herself down. There's something deeply wrong here, and I have my suspicions about their roots, but I'm no biographer.
"Views and Reviews" this week is a lengthy discussion of Malthusianism. Strange sometimes what people debated so recently: the author explains that a new study proves that large families do not inherently cause disease because rich people with large families are healthy. Perhaps more interestingly, the article confronts the issue of the lowering birthrate in the context of longer life expectancy, explaining that the one will largely balance the other. This, naturally, leads to a discussion of sexual practice and whether masturbation and contraception can make you sick. Answer? "Whatever may be the truth of the matter, I cannot pretend to decide; but it seems wise, when doctors differ, to perform functions naturally" (16).
Lastly, that scoundrel-y Oscar Levy contributes a parable about how removing danger from life allows the lower classes to breed more quickly, which in turn crowds out the aristocrats (and even the more effective working men). Oscar's parable of the fishes (which he derives from art critic C. J. Holmes): if you take the pike out of a pond to help the trout grow, the perch will swarm the trout and smaller perch will drive out bigger perch until you have a pond that's just useless. I wonder what he'll say about the war, when it starts?
That's all for now...
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
The New Freewoman, November 1 1913
The first article in this issue is an absolute gem. Editor(s? Marsden?) explains that the arts are approaching the condition of science, but are still stuck "in the position of the alchemists and astrologers." She goes on to reference the latest issue of Poetry and Drama which is apparently devoted to Futurism. I went over to beloved magmods.wordpress.com to dig up the issue, and there 'twas, so I'm going to do a special report on it--stay tuned.
But back to TNF. The upshot of the first article is (and this is still true?) that artists who fall too far on either extreme of the traditional-experimental continuum tend to fall into errors. There's a nice defense of poesie: "In poetry self-consciousness culminates: in it alone emotion rounds on itself, articulate, and says 'I know you'" (183).
In Ireland, the workers have been cheated into an unfair settlement and James Larkin has been thrown in jail. TNF's characteristic response is that the workers of Dublin should have armed themselves. They link the crisis to the mining disaster (see above post) in Wales. The journal is really hard on miners, claiming that they "slither" into their occupation because they aren't able to find decent work. There's a resonant anti-coal screed: "Coal is not wanted, certainly it was not needed. Its advent has done an inordinate amount of harm and only made possible a highly speculative good. Its filth and grime has been splotched form one end of the earth to the other--its progress has had squalor and misery as chosen attendants" (184). This moves into, oddly, a ridicule of the Pankhursts and their hunger strike, as further examples of self-proclaimed victims (the others being the miners and the unarmed Irish).
Pound contributes a short essay continuing his critical relationship with Rabindranath Tagore. He's not backing down from his wholehearted support of Tagore despite the attacks on both of them in The New Age. I noticed how much he emphasizes that Tagore should be read as an artist and not as a religious figure--which may be in part a counterargument to The New Age's labeling him as a quack mystic. Also important is Pound's further establishment of his critical method, which is firmly based in quotation: "It is always better to quote Mr. Tagore than review him. It is always much more convincing. Even when I tried to lecture about him I had to give it up and read from the then proofs of Gitanjali" (187). Pound's penchant for using the text as the only sufficient evidence makes the split in his critical personality even more clear: the prescriptiveness of "A Few Don'ts" is seeming more and more an outlier. At the end, he quotes Dante to illustrate his love of Tagore, a difficult move for me to follow and perhaps a premonition of cantos to come.
Allen Upward (Upwards in the contents of the issue, whoops) contributes an essay on Confucius, aka Kung the Master. It is very proto-Pound, and makes me wonder when Pound starts getting real traction in his study of Chinese. This could be a foundational text, as Upward's Confucius seems a lot like later-Pound's.
Speaking of EP, he continues his series on "A Serious Artist" in this issue, including previsions of Hugh Selwyn Mauberly in its quotations of Villon and general preoccupation with aging and poetic vitalitiy, and also elaborations on his ideas of poetic dynamism. Good interesting insight.
That's all well and Poundian, but the unexpected piece is Bolton Hall's short story "Graveyard Fruit," about a vegetarian who has a vision of every creature and human being he has ever wronged, including incidentally. Intense, a strong comment on the hidden horror of existence and the difficulty of doing right in the world. Teachable for modernist anxiety?
Edgar Mowrer has a fun piece heralding the important invention of a phonograph that can play records backwards, which leads him to criticize futurism and explain why post impressionism is a dead end. Naturally all this happens because playing records backwards will require composers to become more disciplined, as they will be held responsible for both directions.
Finally, and ending a remarkable issue, Huntley Carter contributes a piece on Vision and the environment, pretty much explaining that vision comes from within, and is destroyed by contact with the environment. He bases this on the strengths and shortcomings of Gordon Craig's Towards a New Theatre, especially on its illustrative plates. On a quick skim, it looks terrifically cool. Carter, though, is a little out-there for me (he'd agree, I think), and it just goes further to show how the visionary/mystical/occult side of modernism can exist comfortably next to the aesthetic/scientific/materialist side, even when the discussion is about the inherent contradiction between them. Or something.
But back to TNF. The upshot of the first article is (and this is still true?) that artists who fall too far on either extreme of the traditional-experimental continuum tend to fall into errors. There's a nice defense of poesie: "In poetry self-consciousness culminates: in it alone emotion rounds on itself, articulate, and says 'I know you'" (183).
In Ireland, the workers have been cheated into an unfair settlement and James Larkin has been thrown in jail. TNF's characteristic response is that the workers of Dublin should have armed themselves. They link the crisis to the mining disaster (see above post) in Wales. The journal is really hard on miners, claiming that they "slither" into their occupation because they aren't able to find decent work. There's a resonant anti-coal screed: "Coal is not wanted, certainly it was not needed. Its advent has done an inordinate amount of harm and only made possible a highly speculative good. Its filth and grime has been splotched form one end of the earth to the other--its progress has had squalor and misery as chosen attendants" (184). This moves into, oddly, a ridicule of the Pankhursts and their hunger strike, as further examples of self-proclaimed victims (the others being the miners and the unarmed Irish).
Pound contributes a short essay continuing his critical relationship with Rabindranath Tagore. He's not backing down from his wholehearted support of Tagore despite the attacks on both of them in The New Age. I noticed how much he emphasizes that Tagore should be read as an artist and not as a religious figure--which may be in part a counterargument to The New Age's labeling him as a quack mystic. Also important is Pound's further establishment of his critical method, which is firmly based in quotation: "It is always better to quote Mr. Tagore than review him. It is always much more convincing. Even when I tried to lecture about him I had to give it up and read from the then proofs of Gitanjali" (187). Pound's penchant for using the text as the only sufficient evidence makes the split in his critical personality even more clear: the prescriptiveness of "A Few Don'ts" is seeming more and more an outlier. At the end, he quotes Dante to illustrate his love of Tagore, a difficult move for me to follow and perhaps a premonition of cantos to come.
Allen Upward (Upwards in the contents of the issue, whoops) contributes an essay on Confucius, aka Kung the Master. It is very proto-Pound, and makes me wonder when Pound starts getting real traction in his study of Chinese. This could be a foundational text, as Upward's Confucius seems a lot like later-Pound's.
Speaking of EP, he continues his series on "A Serious Artist" in this issue, including previsions of Hugh Selwyn Mauberly in its quotations of Villon and general preoccupation with aging and poetic vitalitiy, and also elaborations on his ideas of poetic dynamism. Good interesting insight.
That's all well and Poundian, but the unexpected piece is Bolton Hall's short story "Graveyard Fruit," about a vegetarian who has a vision of every creature and human being he has ever wronged, including incidentally. Intense, a strong comment on the hidden horror of existence and the difficulty of doing right in the world. Teachable for modernist anxiety?
Edgar Mowrer has a fun piece heralding the important invention of a phonograph that can play records backwards, which leads him to criticize futurism and explain why post impressionism is a dead end. Naturally all this happens because playing records backwards will require composers to become more disciplined, as they will be held responsible for both directions.
Finally, and ending a remarkable issue, Huntley Carter contributes a piece on Vision and the environment, pretty much explaining that vision comes from within, and is destroyed by contact with the environment. He bases this on the strengths and shortcomings of Gordon Craig's Towards a New Theatre, especially on its illustrative plates. On a quick skim, it looks terrifically cool. Carter, though, is a little out-there for me (he'd agree, I think), and it just goes further to show how the visionary/mystical/occult side of modernism can exist comfortably next to the aesthetic/scientific/materialist side, even when the discussion is about the inherent contradiction between them. Or something.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
The New Age, October 30 1913
Highlights from this issue include:
Romney claims that the thing about modern armies is that they are good at having conclusive battles: "Almost as soon it becomes apparent that one side or the other is about to win, and Fortune, no longer fickle, seldom gives the under dog a chance to recover himself" (781). Hindsight makes his constant bloody-mindedness ridiculous. See also his descriptions of how airship combat might change all this. Very steampunk.
M. B. Oxon. contributes an interesting review of Jessie Weston's book The Quest of the Holy Grail, which from his description seems to be a version of the Waste Land-inspiring (or was it?) From Ritual to Romance (on page 790). Oxon's mystical critique of the book claims that Weston doesn't go back far enough, as the source for the grail legends is probably older than vegetation rituals. He's wink-wink nudge-nudging toward the fantastic. Anyway, I think Eliot would have been intrigued by the general goal of the review, which is to claim that materialism hasn't taken over at all.
There are, of course, lots of other things in the issue, but I'm going to finish this post with a few letters to the editor.
First, there's a clutch of the sort that praise The New Age and make it sound powerful, always written in the same New Age-y tone, almost as if Orage wrote all of them. The letter from repetition of his suggestion that the "National Guild" articles be bound as a book (made by Orage, who I think wrote the articles, while under pseudonym) by one "W.L." is suspect, especially as the letter does not refer to the earlier article at all. Hmm.
J.M. Kennedy and TNA continue their feud, with Kennedy asking for an apology before he will respond (and getting one, albeit a backhanded one).
Anti-feminism galore in the letter by Pallister Barkas, another pseudonym, naturally. Sorry I'm in conspiracy theory mode.
All for now...
Romney claims that the thing about modern armies is that they are good at having conclusive battles: "Almost as soon it becomes apparent that one side or the other is about to win, and Fortune, no longer fickle, seldom gives the under dog a chance to recover himself" (781). Hindsight makes his constant bloody-mindedness ridiculous. See also his descriptions of how airship combat might change all this. Very steampunk.
M. B. Oxon. contributes an interesting review of Jessie Weston's book The Quest of the Holy Grail, which from his description seems to be a version of the Waste Land-inspiring (or was it?) From Ritual to Romance (on page 790). Oxon's mystical critique of the book claims that Weston doesn't go back far enough, as the source for the grail legends is probably older than vegetation rituals. He's wink-wink nudge-nudging toward the fantastic. Anyway, I think Eliot would have been intrigued by the general goal of the review, which is to claim that materialism hasn't taken over at all.
There are, of course, lots of other things in the issue, but I'm going to finish this post with a few letters to the editor.
First, there's a clutch of the sort that praise The New Age and make it sound powerful, always written in the same New Age-y tone, almost as if Orage wrote all of them. The letter from repetition of his suggestion that the "National Guild" articles be bound as a book (made by Orage, who I think wrote the articles, while under pseudonym) by one "W.L." is suspect, especially as the letter does not refer to the earlier article at all. Hmm.
J.M. Kennedy and TNA continue their feud, with Kennedy asking for an apology before he will respond (and getting one, albeit a backhanded one).
Anti-feminism galore in the letter by Pallister Barkas, another pseudonym, naturally. Sorry I'm in conspiracy theory mode.
All for now...
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Poetry, October 1913
The headlining Yeats poem is the most interesting part of a more-tepid Poetry. Yeats' The Two Kings is the sort of magical Irish mythology that he's so famous for in 1913. The story hinges on the husband-king forgiving the queen-wife for magically-induced infidelity, and has some really great lines in it.
Harriet Monroe's essay about the Panama Canal is very excited, but not particularly exciting to me.
Alice Corbin Henderson reviews Child of the Amazons by Max Eastman of The Masses, her verdict: meh.
Ezra Pound has the guts to summarize his essays on Paris and mention the originals in The New Age, which of course has been panning each one as it appears. His apparent lack of concern over the combined efforts of the editors of TNA is striking.
Boring post, sorry.
Harriet Monroe's essay about the Panama Canal is very excited, but not particularly exciting to me.
Alice Corbin Henderson reviews Child of the Amazons by Max Eastman of The Masses, her verdict: meh.
Ezra Pound has the guts to summarize his essays on Paris and mention the originals in The New Age, which of course has been panning each one as it appears. His apparent lack of concern over the combined efforts of the editors of TNA is striking.
Boring post, sorry.
The New Age, October 23 1913
First, politics:
I've been reading George Bornstein's Material Modernism for my PhD exams, and it is really the perfect companion text to my work on this blog. In it, Bornstein examines (for example) Yeats' poems in their original contexts (as much as accessible) and in other editions that have emerged since. His readings of Yeats' "September 1913" have been reminding me to keep an eye on things Irish (like A.E./George Russell's letter last issue) and on labor disputes.
This issue of The New Age begins with a discussion of the Senghenytdd mining disaster. It moves to a more usual topic, the railroad strikes. There's revolution in the air--threats of a massive strike to take place in 1914. Remember that worker's movements have been urged to arm themselves in TNA and The New Freewoman.
The link between armed resistance in Ireland and the possibility for it in England is actually explicit: "The trade unions... though their grievance is of a parallel nature to that of the colonies of Ireland, are even today unaware of its true nature. For them as for these the remedy is Home Rule" (746). See also the poem by Susan Mitchell, "To the Dublin Masters" on page 760, which ends with an unveiled threat of the guillotine. The focus moves back to South Africa, and the editors of TNA wonder whether the armed strikes there will emerge in England. Then more on the lockout in Dublin, which is starving1/3 of the city's population. The desire for a more comprehensive revolution informs The New Age's rejection of a legal minimum wage.
Second, feminism:
Beatrice Hastings reviews a housekeeping guide by Mrs. J. G. Frazer, "First Aid for the Servantless," a book that attempts to show how women don't need house servants. The review is fascinating, though, not for that--but because it stands in as a sort of autobiography of Hastings. She explains her position in the literary world by contrast to her domestic life, continuing her generally anti-feminist approach: "I am a minor poet of the first class. I have never created anything" (759). Hastings' literary ability boils down to the fact that (in her own account) she knows her limitations, many of which are dictated by her gender. Frustrating, revealing.
"Readers and Writers," by Orage presumably, is a take-down of Pound. It hits him right where he's most sensitive when it questions his credentials: "What qualification, may I ask, has Mr. Pound revealed for making a fair estimate of English writing as compared with French?" He also gloats somewhat over having baited EP into an over-emotional response, which I don't think actually happened: Pound has been very reserved about the awful situation he's in (being pilloried in the very journal that is releasing you serially). Pound showed a definite lack of tact (or tactic) but strategic foresight when he slighted the writers of TNA, and of course he ultimately wins the fight (or has for the foreseeable future).
As for pseudonyms and identities, this issue has two delightful plot-thickenings:
J.M. Kennedy replies to "The Writers of the National Guilds Articles" that he hasn't written for TNA for six months and that they have misrepresented his theories. "The Writers" immediately reply, a privilege usually reserved for the editors or the inner-circle of TNA. I imagine that The New Freewoman must be wrong in identifying "Romney" with Kennedy (see earlier discussion). Or it's really getting conspiratorial: could the editors be the "writers?" Orage singled out the "writers" for praise in one of his self-righteous reviews earlier, which he also uses to boost Hastings. Evidence mounts.
Hastings goes after Rebecca West's analysis of Hall Caine's roman a clef that supposedly stars Hastings (see above TNF), saying that her Pages from an Unpublished Novel are NOT autobiographical. Judging by the Stephen Gray biography of Hastings, Hastings is lying (or perhaps Gray repeated West's error? I doubt it). The public image management of Hastings is really fantastic, sort of like Fox News' fake bloggers.
All for now...
I've been reading George Bornstein's Material Modernism for my PhD exams, and it is really the perfect companion text to my work on this blog. In it, Bornstein examines (for example) Yeats' poems in their original contexts (as much as accessible) and in other editions that have emerged since. His readings of Yeats' "September 1913" have been reminding me to keep an eye on things Irish (like A.E./George Russell's letter last issue) and on labor disputes.
This issue of The New Age begins with a discussion of the Senghenytdd mining disaster. It moves to a more usual topic, the railroad strikes. There's revolution in the air--threats of a massive strike to take place in 1914. Remember that worker's movements have been urged to arm themselves in TNA and The New Freewoman.
The link between armed resistance in Ireland and the possibility for it in England is actually explicit: "The trade unions... though their grievance is of a parallel nature to that of the colonies of Ireland, are even today unaware of its true nature. For them as for these the remedy is Home Rule" (746). See also the poem by Susan Mitchell, "To the Dublin Masters" on page 760, which ends with an unveiled threat of the guillotine. The focus moves back to South Africa, and the editors of TNA wonder whether the armed strikes there will emerge in England. Then more on the lockout in Dublin, which is starving1/3 of the city's population. The desire for a more comprehensive revolution informs The New Age's rejection of a legal minimum wage.
Second, feminism:
Beatrice Hastings reviews a housekeeping guide by Mrs. J. G. Frazer, "First Aid for the Servantless," a book that attempts to show how women don't need house servants. The review is fascinating, though, not for that--but because it stands in as a sort of autobiography of Hastings. She explains her position in the literary world by contrast to her domestic life, continuing her generally anti-feminist approach: "I am a minor poet of the first class. I have never created anything" (759). Hastings' literary ability boils down to the fact that (in her own account) she knows her limitations, many of which are dictated by her gender. Frustrating, revealing.
"Readers and Writers," by Orage presumably, is a take-down of Pound. It hits him right where he's most sensitive when it questions his credentials: "What qualification, may I ask, has Mr. Pound revealed for making a fair estimate of English writing as compared with French?" He also gloats somewhat over having baited EP into an over-emotional response, which I don't think actually happened: Pound has been very reserved about the awful situation he's in (being pilloried in the very journal that is releasing you serially). Pound showed a definite lack of tact (or tactic) but strategic foresight when he slighted the writers of TNA, and of course he ultimately wins the fight (or has for the foreseeable future).
As for pseudonyms and identities, this issue has two delightful plot-thickenings:
J.M. Kennedy replies to "The Writers of the National Guilds Articles" that he hasn't written for TNA for six months and that they have misrepresented his theories. "The Writers" immediately reply, a privilege usually reserved for the editors or the inner-circle of TNA. I imagine that The New Freewoman must be wrong in identifying "Romney" with Kennedy (see earlier discussion). Or it's really getting conspiratorial: could the editors be the "writers?" Orage singled out the "writers" for praise in one of his self-righteous reviews earlier, which he also uses to boost Hastings. Evidence mounts.
Hastings goes after Rebecca West's analysis of Hall Caine's roman a clef that supposedly stars Hastings (see above TNF), saying that her Pages from an Unpublished Novel are NOT autobiographical. Judging by the Stephen Gray biography of Hastings, Hastings is lying (or perhaps Gray repeated West's error? I doubt it). The public image management of Hastings is really fantastic, sort of like Fox News' fake bloggers.
All for now...
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