It is difficult to write a paradiso when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that creating beauty (paradiso) is challenging in a world that insists on focusing on negativity and destruction (apocalypse).
Ezra Pound's quote reflects the struggle of producing uplifting or beautiful work when faced with overwhelming negativity and societal pressures that advocate for darker themes. It highlights the tension between the desire to create something positive and the external influences that push one towards despair or apocalyptic narratives.
In practice
During a speech about artistic expression, one could use this quote to illustrate the challenges faced by artists.
The ant's a centaur in his dragon world. Pull down thy vanity, it is not man Made courage, or made order, or made grace, Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down. Learn of the green world what can be thy place In scaled invention or true artistry, Pull down thy vanity, Paquin pull down! The green casque has outdone your elegance.
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours Forever and forever and forever.
Literature does not exist in a vacuum. Writers as such have a definite social function exactly proportional to their ability as writers. This is their main use.
In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy, just as inability to read plain print was the curse of earlier centuries.
The modern artist must live by craft and violence. His gods are violent gods. Those artists, so called, whose work does not show this strife, are uninteresting.
Fundamental accuracy of statement is the ONE sole morality of writing.
Let every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer.
He thought about how it might be to be, say, a fox confronted with an angry sheep. A sheep moreover, that could afford to employ wolves.
The ascetic is often a sensualist who has reached the limit of his capacity.
It is easy enough to praise men for the courage of their convictions. I wish I could teach the sad young of this mealy generation the courage of their confusions.
He does it with better grace, but I do it more natural.
I think the enemy is self-censorship. In a free society the biggest danger is that you're afraid to the point where you censor yourself.
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