Wednesday, May 24, 2017

The Wrong Side

Moody's bio of Ezra Pound, well, the first volume that is, is the real deal. Helps you into an appreciation of the poetry, even the stuff that isn't so appealing at first glance, and is engrossing on the life without being intrusive. Avoids reading back the later political tragedy into the young Pound, who comes over as a fairly decent bloke, especially with money, even if a bit odd. I haven't got the second volume yet, not even sure it's in paperback, but it's on auto-buy when I find out how to get hold of it. What happened after 1920 to so momentously screw the guy up? Or were the seeds of dumb fascism there all along? Darned if I can see them anywhere in the pre-Great War Ezra.

Frightening to think that we might just turn out to have been on the wrong side of history after the dust has settled, when we were so sure of our righteousness.

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