Art for whose sake? Reading Pound's reputation in Timothy Findley's Famous Last Words and The Trials of Ezra Pound

Journal of Canadian Studies, Winter 1998/1999 by Donna Krolik Hollenberg

Part of the play's power results from its economy and its carefully conceived structure. First performed on CBC Radio, it consists of two acts, the first containing 16 short scenes, and the second, 20. The principal setting is the courtroom, but the stage contains four levels which are "lit and peopled according to Pound's interpretation of the events and confrontations" or the needs of the chorus (The Trials of Ezra Pound 9). This multi-levelled set enhances Findley's thematic layering. It also enables flashbacks to earlier parts of Pound's life that give his characterization depth. The spotlight shifts between Pound and the chorus characters, and these shifts themselves become a central part of the unfolding drama.

The play opens with a prelude that establishes its complexity of tone. There is darkness, except for the silhouette of an empty courtroom and a spotlight upon Pound seated on a wooden stool. There is silence, but for the sound of the wind "as it might be heard in Ezra's mind" and Pound's assertion that "This is not a work of fiction, nor yet of one man" (The Trials of Ezra Pound, Prelude 11). His statement effectively blurs the distinction between the historical accuracy of what is to follow and its status as psychodrama. Unlike Famous Last Words, where the offensive character, Pound, is distinguished from and subordinated to the hero, Mauberley (based on Pound's youthful persona), here Findley develops Pound himself as the hero, making him the subject of pity as well as contempt. For example, he dramatizes Pound's virulent paranoia, evident when he continues to "broadcast" treasonous, anti-Semitic statements in court about the need "to eliminate Roosevelt and his Jews" (15), and his vulnerability, most vivid when he compares himself to a drowning dog. He shows both Pound's grandiosity, the certainty that his is the prophetic literary voice of his era, and his self-mocking sense of humour, which permits a salutary connection with a custodian in the hospital latrine. Pound's obstreperousness and vulgarity, particularly in regard to women and sexuality, are dramatized, along with his capacity for tenderness, exaltation and contrition.

As in Famous Last Words, our response to Pound is mediated by chorus characters who are his political associates or personal friends. On the political side are the reporters, lawyers and psychiatrists, most of whom are taken from the documentary record. All of these pretend disinterest, but most have, in fact, personal agendas regarding Pound's case: to "win" the story or the judgement, to get revenge or to wield power. All are subject to the pressure of world opinion. At one point, Dr Winfred Overholser, Superintendent of St. Elizabeths Hospital, reminds Dr Wendell Muncie, a consulting psychiatrist who thinks Pound may be sane, that the Nuremberg trials pervade the news and that, in England, William Joyce has been condemned to death "for no other reason than his radio broadcasts" (48). In fact, Overholser's desire to save Pound from a similar fate makes Overholser the greater villain of the piece. His willingness to lie about the earlier assessments of Pound's sanity by his medical colleagues, in the service of a "vested interest in the future" (48) - meaning the future of people like himself - makes his subsequent exposure by the Assistant Attorney-General one of the play's climaxes.6