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Old 09-09-2014, 11:11 AM
 
Location: Earth
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Ezra Pound, writer of notoriously unreadable and unintelligible so called poetry, was convicted of treason after World War II for making propaganda broadcasts for the Axis aimed at audiences in the Allied nations. Yet, Pound avoided being executed and was confined to St. Elizabeth's mental hospital for years where he continued to write so called poetry, do interviews, and even have sex with women. Did Pound have people "pulling the strings" for him - perhaps high up people in government who shared his antisemitic views? Why wasn't he put to death?
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Old 09-09-2014, 11:37 AM
 
Location: Birmingham
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I don't know, I just came here to say, "hanged."
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Old 09-09-2014, 12:38 PM
 
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Pound was a mentally ill man. We don't hang that kind of person no matter what he says.
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Old 09-09-2014, 12:52 PM
 
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P.G. Wodehouse, my very favorite writer, was marooned in France in June, 1940. He spent the war in a German internment camp and actually made, naively, a few humorous broadcasts. The British were outraged so, when the war ended, he came to the United States. The Brits eventually forgave him, giving him a knighthood. But he still spent the remainder of his very productive life on Long Island writing very funny books and developing a passion for baseball, most notably the New York Mets.

More on the subject here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/b...htful-ass.html

Last edited by cpg35223; 09-09-2014 at 01:02 PM..
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Old 09-09-2014, 12:54 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Padgett2 View Post
Pound was a mentally ill man. We don't hang that kind of person no matter what he says.
if he was mentally ill it was because of his treatment by us forces - hung in a cage for six weeks ?
he was a giant of thought, and a great poet. he sought true solutions to the problems he saw
and lived through.
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Old 09-09-2014, 01:05 PM
 
28,896 posts, read 53,969,898 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowball7 View Post
if he was mentally ill it was because of his treatment by us forces - hung in a cage for six weeks ?
he was a giant of thought, and a great poet. he sought true solutions to the problems he saw
and lived through.
I am an admirer of Pound's poetry, especially his Cantos.

That being said, one can be a giant of thought in one arena and a complete dunderhead in another. The fact that he was enamored of fascism early on and egged on Mussolini as he began his wars of conquest and pushed for even greater repression of Jews speaks to classic losing of one's moral compass in tightly-wound circles of thought. In a sense, Pound became the caricature of a pointy-headed intellectual in the minds of the public whose sons were dying in places such as Anzio while he holed up in his Italian villa. At the very least, an wise man would not have been on Mussolini's payroll making propaganda broadcasts against his native country during open hostilities.

While he claims that his three-week imprisonment prompted his insanity, I think the insanity verdict against him was a convenience. Nobody would have really stomached putting one of America's foremost, distinguished intellectuals in front of a firing squad.

Last edited by cpg35223; 09-09-2014 at 01:13 PM..
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Old 09-09-2014, 01:15 PM
 
Location: Earth
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Padgett2 View Post
Pound was a mentally ill man. We don't hang that kind of person no matter what he says.
Pound certainly had his issues, as was quite apparent from the Cantos, but he knew what he did was a crime and his acts did not meet the definition of insanity as defined in the McNaughton Rule. (The legal definition of insanity in Britain, America, and the Commonwealth countries)

He must have had protectors in high places who shared his racist and antisemitic views, although I don't think too many Americans would have agreed with Pound's call for Italian youth to mount what are now known as suicide bombing attacks against the Allies.
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Old 09-09-2014, 02:04 PM
 
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All one could find is this: Pound strongly supported Benito Mussolini, believing that art flourishes under strong leaders. He worked actively against the Allies until the end of the war, when he was arrested by U.S. forces and held for weeks in an open cage in a prison camp near Pisa. The experience broke his mental health, although he produced one of his most beautiful works, the Pisan Cantos, there. When he was returned to the U.S., he was ruled unfit to stand trial and held at St. Elizabeth's for 13 years. While in prison, his Pisan Cantos (1948) won an award from the Library of Congress. Poets and authors rallied around him and finally gained his release in 1958. He returned to Italy, where he lived until his death in 1972.
Federal court decides to release Ezra Pound — History.com This Day in History — 4/18/1958

You see references to the same (Pound being held in an outdoor "cage") in many sources so who can say? I mean if one were held in an outdoor six foot by six foot cage for many weeks in all sorts of weather....
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Old 09-09-2014, 02:29 PM
 
Location: Earth
17,440 posts, read 28,485,694 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BugsyPal View Post
All one could find is this: Pound strongly supported Benito Mussolini, believing that art flourishes under strong leaders. He worked actively against the Allies until the end of the war, when he was arrested by U.S. forces and held for weeks in an open cage in a prison camp near Pisa. The experience broke his mental health, although he produced one of his most beautiful works, the Pisan Cantos, there. When he was returned to the U.S., he was ruled unfit to stand trial and held at St. Elizabeth's for 13 years. While in prison, his Pisan Cantos (1948) won an award from the Library of Congress. Poets and authors rallied around him and finally gained his release in 1958. He returned to Italy, where he lived until his death in 1972.
Federal court decides to release Ezra Pound — History.com This Day in History — 4/18/1958

You see references to the same (Pound being held in an outdoor "cage") in many sources so who can say? I mean if one were held in an outdoor six foot by six foot cage for many weeks in all sorts of weather....
He didn't support Mussolini just for the sake of art

Ezra Pound
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Old 09-09-2014, 02:47 PM
 
31,652 posts, read 26,516,377 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by majoun View Post
He didn't support Mussolini just for the sake of art

Ezra Pound
You do understand the quote was taken from the above linked article and thus not one's own don't you?

Pound's work was never up one's street personally so never bothered. Cannot even say he was covered at school or in college either so that's me for you.

Being as all this may considering the man's ill treatment upon arrest and so forth it does give some idea as to why he wasn't executed. I mean there are those who did worse, much worse during WWII and not only weren't put to death but in many cases not even arrested and prosecuted.
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