Abstract
In 1931, Pound offered an explanation for his move to Rapallo. Citing his absorption with the ‘high peaks of culture,’ he emphasized Italy’s double civilizing of Europe: ‘each time a strong, live energy is unleashed in Italy, a new renaissance comes forth.’ ‘English stupidity and French imbecility’ also drove him to Italy where the only viable comparison to its leader, Mussolini, is Jefferson. Furthermore, ‘without a strong Italy, I don’t see the possibility of a balanced Europe’ (Redman 76–7). He also quipped, on another occasion, that the trains between Paris and Rome always stopped in Rapallo so it was easy for friends to drop in (Laughlin P. as Wuz 9).
Europe belongs to Dante and the witches’ sabbath, not to Newton.
(Yeats, 1933)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
For details on the Eleusinian Mysteries see Boris de Rachewiltz (Pound’s son-in-law), ‘Pagan and Magic Elements in Ezra Pound’s Work,’ New Approaches to Ezra Pound, ed. Eva Hesse (London: Faber and Faber, 1969) 174–97; Leon Surette, A Light from Eleusis: A Study of Pound’s Cantos (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979); Demetres P. Tryphonopoulos, The Celestial Tradition, A Study of Ezra Pound’s The Cantos (Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1992), especially ch.2.
For a detailed discussion of Pound and radio, and links between radio and Futurism, Dada and Surrealism, see Margaret Fisher, Ezra Pound’s Radio Operas: The BBC Experiments, 1931–1933 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002), ch. 2.
Copyright information
© 2004 Ira B. Nadel
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nadel, I.B. (2004). ‘The Indifferent Never Make History’: 1930–40. In: Ezra Pound. Literary Lives. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230378810_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230378810_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-58257-2
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-37881-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)