One of my rediscoveries during this project has been the impact of Allen Upward's writing and poetry on Ezra Pound. This issue contains an essay by Pound titled "Allen Upward Serious.". Period in the title in the original. It's a passionate defense of Upward as a thinker and writer, along familiar Poundian lines. Apparently Upward's recent books, "The Divine Mystery" and "The New Word" are being panned in the press because Upward also writes popular fiction--there's a snobby reaction against his ability to write "serious.". Pound also makes his defense of Upward's etymology of "glaux" as derived from the Greek for owl, later used in Canto XXI (see Liebregts 2004, 183, I edited an essay of Liebregts' for Paideuma when I worked there, so it's nice to find this connection). This essay on Upward also contains some insight into Pound's political development, as he credits Upward for claiming that "a nation is civilized in so far as it recognizes the special faculties of the individual, and makes use therof" (780). This makes a nice self-referential double-knot: by making this Upward's point, Pound lets his praise of Upward be that recognition while also calling attention to his own lack of cultural support. It's also Pound's concern, of course, and he was great at "making use of" special individuals. It's also clear that this is an elitist anti-democratic standpoint, the next sentence: "You do not weigh coals with the assayer's balance." Reference to Pound pere, the assayer?
Quick notes (because it is the end of the month and I have a backlog):
Arthur Penty contributes an article titled "Medievalism vs. Modernism" which only obliquely deals with art: for him, the terms refer to political philosophies. On the one side, the guild system, Luddite anti-machinery craftsmanship, and nonalienated labor. For the modernist side, mechanization, alienation, Sidney Webb.
Peter Selver contributes a poem lampooning modern poets: "A Few Words with a Modern Poet," almost certainly targeting the Imagistes (794).
There's a huge controversy brewing between proto-fascist racialist Anthony Ludovici and others, including Annanda Coomarswami. Fascinating, disturbing stuff--Ludovici claiming that aesthetics are racial: "Ugly is simply a word denoting 'not our race' or 'not a good, healthy example of our race.'" (799). This was public discourse 100 years ago, albeit provocative discourse. At least one "R. Cox" protests that Ludovici in particular and The New Age in general is "too aristocratic." Must medievalism and aristocracy go hand-in-hand?
Quick notes (because it is the end of the month and I have a backlog):
Arthur Penty contributes an article titled "Medievalism vs. Modernism" which only obliquely deals with art: for him, the terms refer to political philosophies. On the one side, the guild system, Luddite anti-machinery craftsmanship, and nonalienated labor. For the modernist side, mechanization, alienation, Sidney Webb.
Peter Selver contributes a poem lampooning modern poets: "A Few Words with a Modern Poet," almost certainly targeting the Imagistes (794).
There's a huge controversy brewing between proto-fascist racialist Anthony Ludovici and others, including Annanda Coomarswami. Fascinating, disturbing stuff--Ludovici claiming that aesthetics are racial: "Ugly is simply a word denoting 'not our race' or 'not a good, healthy example of our race.'" (799). This was public discourse 100 years ago, albeit provocative discourse. At least one "R. Cox" protests that Ludovici in particular and The New Age in general is "too aristocratic." Must medievalism and aristocracy go hand-in-hand?
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