From: EricMurph-AT-aol.com
Date: Sun, 1 Jun 1997 09:24:05 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: paralogy and the Vortex


I'm a little concerned about Pound being right wing art and Appolinaire being
left wing art.  I'm with Benjamin here.  I don't know that such distinctions
are really that useful. Granted Baudelaire was an extreme reactionary, but in
his role as flaneur, he saw the changes taking place that would lead us from
the arcades to the malls and their spectacles and captured it is his art.

I feel the same way about Pound.  Despite his many faults, and they are
legion, he remains a great poet, like Baudelaire, despite his politics.  As
such, he has important things to teach us. 

I am concerned that judging an artist on his or her politics usually leads to
bad art. I am certainly leftward in my leanings, but I  would not want to see
art and literature return to the social realism of the thirties.  

Also, I would argue that Appolinaire and Pound, despite their many
differences, shared many technical innovations in common.  To a certain
extent, they were both futurists!