The conversation commences with a preliminary discussion on Pound and our responses to Women of Trachis; some of us read this 30 years ago (it was difficult then: “I did not like it”)... Perhaps we did not understand this text

But then… we change, the text “changes” as we read and reread; we return and return again

Someone brings up ol’ Brer rabbit and the vernacular of the messenger; Is this Pound’s racism? Is his use of Brer legitimate? Perhaps this is cultural interaction; the America Pound sees in St. E’s: “The New America.” It seems Pound metonymically relates his own lived experiences through other texts, and repositions them as his own; he always mitigates the world through translation

How did Pound perceive Black Americans: They play a major role in the Pisan DTC; Black and White division in America at this time may have finally been palpable to him after WWII

We prod at the hypotheticals of the text’s context–this becomes a conversation about Heracles’ crime and “criminal identity”; Pound is on trial for treason

The “other” women of trachis aka pound as filanderer courting many lovers (Olga in Italy, Dorothy as caretaker. Sheri Martinelli as muse)

We turn from the hypotheticals of context to Heracle’s apotheosis at the end of the play; light is again pivotal here, as it always is to Pound. Is this another case of eleusis, light, epiphany, knowledge, sex?

We are reminded of signatures and the Semina Motuum in the cherry stone; is this light and illumination cohering for pound now? Pound’s ideas themselves are signatures. Aphrodite as the deus ex machina made literal. This could be the hypostatic moment of Noh

We turn to comparisons of the Poundian translation against other versions of the text?

We talk Aeschylus, Sophocles and context

We talk the typical atypical Poundian translation methodology and context

Classics are essential to Pound; how does this play showcase that? A tangent on the horror of Eliot translation of classics: The Cocktail Party vs Trachis
The restitution of classics for Pound and Eliot plays a role in the Risorgimento and the restitution of America as the New Roman Empire

Are the classics gone today? Are they in paraphrase? This brings us to a conversation about the relevant usage of classics in Marvel; comic books vs films

Is it necessary to bring back the forces of the past in tradition? Is there ongoing presence dictated by form?

Structure and the modern or contemporary voice; otherwise Odysseus would not still be relevant today

A brief turn to the role of the Chorus in Trachis and its poetic moment; the step outside the tragedy

Why the classics are not relevant today: Of course, this addresses problems at the university, Neoliberal privatisation and the rise of the internet platform

Clicking on the next thing on social media and participatory mediums

We as society need to bring forward texts into the future rather than reach back and spend too much time gazing at the past

We all agree we have thought of the Cantos as Pound’s social media feed

Where is the text in the next 50 years? New modes of communication, new media; translation implies going forward

Why is there so minimal stage instruction in Trachis? Does this reflect the ancient Greek? Is it a radio play or theatre? Which would be better?

Pound, Omar Pound, Casper and the bad legacy

Speculation: Was Pound a schizoid? Could he have been bipolar?

We watch a video of the Orestaeia, put on in the 1970s and recorded for watching on camera.

The mask as material or the mask in relation to the traditional old text

“Pound’s is very real, isn’t it?” “It’s very of the people”

Historical point: “Don’t talk about Eleusis… well, everyone talks about Eleusis

“This play is Eleusinian and Noh all over”

Final summations; the film showcases unity in its disunity, it anticipates the collapse of the Cantos; it is consistent

In essence… This play is Noh and Greek tragedy together