Let's Get This Party Started
Dr. X posts this from a good Cantonese restaurant:
"When it comes to poetry about economics, you'll have a tough time topping the madcap of Cantos of Ezra Pound. Pound was an anti-capitalist fascist (at least, he did some broadcasts for the bad guys during WWII), and managed to get himself committed to an asylum after the war (as opposed to being shot).
"But his concerns - his suspicion that modern markets were destructive of deeply-rooted and ancient traditions, his fear that a lending-based economy would prompt overconsumption and overpromotion of shabby goods, his fear that mass market culture would undermine the arts - were not without validity.
"Canto XLV:
With usura hath no man a house of good stone
each block cut smooth and well fitting
that design might cover their face,
with usura
hath no man a painted paradise on his church wall
harpes et luthes
or where virgin receiveth message
and halo projects from incision,
with usura
seeth no man Gonzaga his heirs and his concubines
no picture is made to endure nor to live with
but it is made to sell and sell quickly
with usura, sin against nature,
is thy bread ever more of stale rags
is thy bread dry as paper,
with no mountain wheat, no strong flour
with usura the line grows thick
with usura is no clear demarcation
and no man can find site for his dwelling
Stone cutter is kept from his stone
weaver is kept from his loom
WITH USURA
wool comes not to market
sheep bringeth no grain with usura
Usura is a murrain, usura
blunteth the needle in the the maid's hand
and stoppeth the spinner's cunning. Pietro Lombardo
came not by usura
Duccio came not by usura
nor Pier della Francesca; Zuan Bellin' not by usura
nor was "La Callunia" painted.
Came not by usura Angelico; came not Ambrogio Praedis,
Came no church of cut stone signed: Adamo me fecit.
Not by usura St. Trophime
Not by usura St. Hilaire,
Usura rusteth the chisel
It rusteth the craft and the craftsman
It gnaweth the thread in the loom
None learneth to weave gold in her pattern;
Azure hath a canker by usura; cramoisi is unbroidered
Emerald findeth no Memling
Usura slayeth the child in the womb
It stayeth the young man's courting
It hath brought palsey to bed, lyeth
between the young bride and her bridegroom
CONTRA NATURAM
They have brought whores for Eleusis
Corpses are set to banquet
at behest of usura.
"Some interesting commentary on the poem can be found here."
posted by Latouche at Large at 10:25 PM
1 Comments:
Ezra Pound: poet, fascist, iconoclast extraordinaire.
T.S. Eliot was also known for his resistance to the modern world, and I would hate to have whatever I
might be writing reactionary against contemporary times.
Pound of course was a reactionary, and it seems a fair bet that usury was a stand-in for anti-Semitism.
I think it's fair to describe a deepening of alienation in American culture. The cause is partly our economic organization, which, while creating a great deal of prosperity, steadily cedes the individual's control over his economic circumstance, to complex organizations. This was frequently the criticism of socialism, ironically enough.
Market economies, where entrepreneurial creativity is left solely to tiny numbers of capitalists undermines the principle moral justification,such as it is, for capitalism. Efficient economic production with its benefits undistributed is both acidic and environmentally destructive. Never mind that the primary lesson in our experience of the global economy -- you can always be replaced by someone cheaper and better -- is a deep wound to the soul.
Post a Comment
<< Home