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

Finally, I want to pass on part of a letter to me in which Findley describes a last step he took "to reconciliation concerning Pound, the poet vs. Pound, the propagandist."" It concerns an experience he had during a visit to Pound's grave on the island of San Michele in Venice. In Findley's words, "After a long and labyrinthine walk, I discovered [Pound's] very simple gravestone under a low shrub -just a stone plaque bearing his name and dates. As I approached the stone, a large lizard leapt out from under the underbrush onto the stone, raised its head, fixed me with a stare, and - after issuing a loud, harsh hiss - disappeared back into the greenery. Within the hiss I heard an echo of Pound's voice: so, you've finally come, have you?" Findley concludes that he had finally come "to the realization that nothing can detract from the strength or the importance of that poetic voice."

This anecdote suggests that Findley, the man, has come to accept Pound's voice, venomous hiss and all, for he unequivocally extols its strength and importance. His image of the lizard invokes the popular belief that artists are monstres sacris, granted moral carte blanche. His works about Pound encourage the expression of a different opinion, however. Through them, those of us who are less forgiving become "co-creators in the enterprise of remembering history through fiction" (Brydon 14-15). Findley's works, in which we reconnect aesthetic with ethical imperatives, enable this process.

NOTES

1. Notable exceptions are Peter Nicholls and Lawrence Rainey. In the PMLA Newsletter (Spring 1995), Hugh Witemeyer proposed a special session on "Pound and His Contemporaries" in which he asked, "Was it the Pound era`?" His question suggests the need for re-evaluation.

2. The recent special topic, "Ethics and Literary Study," to appear in the PMLA Newsletter, suggests renewed interest in the general issue.

3. For a discussion of the moral dimensions of Findley's work up to Famous Last Words, see David Ingham.

4. While Pound didn't go to China, his interest in Oriental art inspired a number of Chinese "translations" in his book Cathay (1915).

5. That Pound was influenced by the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is well documented by Robert Cassilo. The critical debate about whether or not Pound is repentant in The Pisan Cantos or in his life is summarized by Bar-Yaacov.

6. In his handling of Overholser, Findley echoes the biographical record. In his biography of Pound, Humphrey Carpenter reports that Overholser admitted that "many of the young doctors on his staff disagreed with the diagnosis that Ezra was mad," but that he overrode their judgement (743).

7. Findley also focusses on the embittered relationship between Pound and his wife Dorothy in the sketch, "Daybreak at Pisa," in Dinner Along the Amazon, 250-58.

8. Martinelli did not actually become an acolyte of Pound at St. Elizabeths until 1952; however, Findley's portrait of her is otherwise true to the biographical record.

9. Again Findley is true to the biographical record. In an article published in the New York newspaper PM in 1945, Williams deplored Pound's callousness, but questioned its criminality. He wrote, "His stupidities coupled with his overweening self-esteem have brought him down - but to try to make