Exchange Of Letters Research Articles

Na marginesie sporu wokół książki Aleksandra Janty-Połczyńskiego Wracam z Polski. List Jana Lechonia do Jerzego Giedroycia z maja 1949 r.

After the transfer of Instytut Literacki from Rome to Paris, the break of the nineteen-forties and the nineteen-fi fties turned out to be formation time for the editorial strategy of Jerzy Giedroyc. During these days, the monthly Kultura acquired the leading part in the activities of the Instytut, and in this role it published, fervent at times, polemics, concerning the political line of the periodical. The printing of the fi rst part of the documentary by Aleksander Janta-Polczynski “Wracam z Polski 1948” (Upon my return from Poland, 1948) was received with indignation by the majority of the Polish emigre milieu. It also revealed the differences in the attitude of the “Polish” London and the Parisian Kultura towards post-war Poland. Kultura, upon the instructions of General Anders, was withdrawn from sale in Great Britain. Under such pressure, Giedroyc refused to publish the second part of the documentary in Kultura, but, fi nanced the edition of the complete book in early 1949. Giedroyc, and the Kultura team, refused to support the June 1947 resolution of the Union of Polish Writers, which in reality prohibited the publishing of “older and current works” in Poland. Giedroyc was also sceptical of the stance assumed by the London based journal Wiadomości, directed by Mieczyslaw Grydzewski, which cut itself completely off from what was happening in Poland, and criticised the persons who decided to return home, in particular the writers. The publishing of Janta’s article resulted in an exchange of letters between Jozef Czapski, General Wladyslaw Anders, and Jerzy Giedroyc, in October and November 1948. Each of them presented his own views, but no compromise was reached. Nevertheless, the most vehement turned out to be the so called “Pastoral” letter by Jan Lechon to Jerzy Giedroyc, written by the poet, after having read the book in May 1949. At the time, Lechon belonged to the closest collaborators of Mieczyslaw Grydzewski and the London Wiadomości. In his highly emotional dispatch, Lechon accused Janta of conscious, or unconscious, writing for the Bolshevik cause, and the defence of Janta’s attitude by the Kultura milieu, in Lechon’s eyes, was “most scandalising and extremely damaging with respect to the already disoriented and demoralised Polish emigre opinion”. However, Giedroyc refused to respond to the letter. In his opinion, the publishing of Janta’s book closed the issue. Lechon’s letter is one of the most representative texts for the “indomitable” and “uncompromising” wing of the Polish emigration after World War II.

A MÍSTICA ESPECULATIVA A PARTIR DA METÁFORA DO OLHAR EM DE VISIONE DEI DE NICOLAU DE CUSA (1401-1464)

Este artigo busca discutir acerca da experiência místico-especulativa que Nicolau de Cusa (1401-1464) propõe aos monges de Tegernsee para os conduzir à “sagrada obscuridade” ou “teologia mística”. O autor estava motivado pela discussão do século XV, sobre se se deveria entender a visão contemplativa de forma meramente afetiva ou intelectual. Esse debate envolvia dois grandes partidários de ambas perspectivas, respectivamente, Vicente de Aggsbach e Gerson. Após troca de cartas, Nicolau de Cusa envia aos monges beneditinos o De visione dei (1453) e um quadro que representa “a figura de alguém que tudo vê” denominado por ele “Ícone de Deus”. Destarte, a partir da experiência de olhar um quadro, cuja pintura traz a peculiaridade de o olhar pintado acompanhar aquele que o olha, Nicolau os leva a especular sobre a experiência do olhar de Deus que não abandona e acompanha todos e cada um. Logo, o caminho proposto no De visione dei é uma verdadeira “condução pela mão” (Manuductio) para que os monges, segundo as suas capacidades, alcancem a experiência mística: do olhar finito do quadro ao olhar infinito que é o próprio olhar de Deus. O artigo, portanto, dentro do âmbito da filosofia de Nicolau de Cusa mostra a via reflexiva que parte da experiência da finitude até a mais alta e profunda especulação que o homem pode vir a fazer: contemplar o divino.

Andrew Marvell in Russia

This article examines interactions between diplomatic representation, state bureaucracy, and rhetoric in early modern diplomacy. It analyzes manuscripts in the hand of the poet Andrew Marvell, which he wrote as secretary to the Earl of Carlisle’s 1663–64 embassy to Moscow. The manuscripts show how a battle over diplomatic ceremony and honor unfolded into disputes over the forms and decorum used in a lively exchange of diplomatic letters and written complaints. These texts were edited, translated, and published for English and international audiences by another embassy secretary, Guy Miège. The article traces the afterlife of the embassy letters in print, arguing that Marvell and Miège became central agents in shaping how the embassy was perceived at home and further afield. The wider context of public diplomacy drew from the secretaries’ considerable skill in framing diplomatic letters for consumption by different audiences. Early modern ambassadors performed rituals of sovereignty, symbolizing status and rank, but the complex art of diplomatic image-making was also directed by lower-ranking embassy personnel. Examining the relationship between bureaucratic practices and the performative nature of diplomacy, this article shows how secretaries exerted significant influence on the reception of early modern diplomatic relations.

Letters of Bertrand Russell and Wincenty Lutosławski on Immortality, Matter and Plato

Wincenty Lutosławski (1863–1954) was internationally recognized in the academic world as a prominent Plato scholar. His fragmentary correspondence with Bertrand Russell is presented in this paper. Before World War II he initiated an exchange of letters with Russell on issues such as reincarnation, but the replies he received were laconic and discouraging. This changed, however, after the war when Russell published his History of Western Philosophy. Despite their different philosophical positions, Lutosławski’s opinion on this work as a whole was favourable, in particular the chapters on Plato. Such an assessment was the exception rather than the rule for that book, and knowing Lutosławski’s general recognition in Platonic studies, Russell forwarded the letter to his publisher.

New insight into the origins of the calculus war

ABSTRACT The consensus today is that both Newton and Leibniz created calculus independently. Yet, this was not so clear at the beginning of the eighteenth century. A bitter controversy took place at that time, which came to be known as the ‘calculus war’, probably the greatest clash in the history of science. While it is accepted that the debate started when Fatio de Duillier publicly accused Leibniz of plagiarism in 1699, earlier evidence of its origins can be found in an exchange of letters between Leibniz and Huygens.

Letters of Bertrand Russell and Wincenty Lutosławski on Immortality, Matter and Plato

Wincenty Lutosławski (1863–1954) was internationally recognized in the academic world as a prominent Plato scholar. His fragmentary correspondence with Bertrand Russell is presented in this paper. Before World War II he initiated an exchange of letters with Russell on issues such as reincarnation, but the replies he received were laconic and discouraging. This changed, however, after the war when Russell published his History of Western Philosophy. Despite their different philosophical positions, Lutosławski’s opinion on this work as a whole was favourable, in particular the chapters on Plato. Such an assessment was the exception rather than the rule for that book, and knowing Lutosławski’s general recognition in Platonic studies, Russell forwarded the letter to his publisher.

A story about the Daughter of Ka‘b from the Masnavi Ilahi-nameh by Farid ad-Din ‘Attar: the romance narrative within the mystical context

The article discusses the problem of author’s interpretation of conventional patterns of the romance “genre” in the Tale about daughter of Ka‘b from the Ilahinameh by Farid ad-Din ‘Attar. In particular, it deals with the so-called “standard situations” (e.g. falling in love without seeing the partner, exchange of love letters or poems, etc.) as well as key components of structure (dialogues, monologues, descriptive portraits of main heroes). The analysis is based on the comparison of canonic elements of romance narrative in the Tale about daughter of Ka‘b with their analogies in the texts of the same “genre” of the earlier periods, including the “standard” romances by Nizami. This research reveals the influence of the ‘Uzri lyrical and narrative tradition with regard to the structure of plot of the “romance” and the ways of building up and composition of the features of the chief personage. On this background were analyzed the literary functions of the “inferior” personages, e.g. the nurse (or wet-nurse). The article is based on the translation and commentary of the Story about daughter of Ka‘b by Layla G. Lahuty.

On theexocerebrum

This is an exchange of letters by email occurred in 2005. They reflect a discussion on fundamental issues of the study of consciousness and the brain. The starting point was Bartra’s text on the exocerebrum. This text is now expanded into a book published in English by Cambridge University Press in 2014: Anthropology of the Brain: Consciousness, Culture, and Free Will. All Harnad’s texts are in italics.

Heidegger and Marcuse: A history of disenchantment

In a 1977 interview with Frederick Olafson, Marcuse denied that any aspect of Heidegger’s philosophy was redeemable, suggesting that its latent Nazism was clear to him ‘ex-post’. This tiny phrase raises a significant problem for Heideggerian scholarship: the equivocal nature of hindsight’s seeming clarity. Playing with the notion of disenchantment, I retrace Marcuse’s disenchantment with Heidegger, from the Olafson interview to their 1947–8 exchange of letters, to Marcuse’s little-known ‘German philosophy, 1871–1933’ and finally to Being and Time itself, to argue that Heidegger’s theory of death and guilt provides an answer to the problem of the ex-post: a way in which we can recreate from beginning to end the disenchanting story of how Heidegger’s Nazism informed his thought, yet still retrace from end to beginning the way in which Heidegger’s thought was fertile philosophical territory in the first place.

Conversation with a future self: A letter-exchange exercise enhances student self-continuity, career planning, and academic thinking

ABSTRACT We expected that enhanced future self-continuity could benefit students planning future academic and career pursuits, and tested a new method to foster self-continuity. A pilot study demonstrated that future self-continuity predicted academic and career planning and was lower in vocational-oriented than academic-oriented high school students. In Study 1, vocational-track students’ future self-continuity was higher after a letter exchange exercise with their future self (send and reply). In Study 2, students randomly assigned to a letter exchange (send to and reply from future self) condition showed increases in future self-continuity, career planning, and academic delay of gratification relative to students assigned to a send-only condition. Perspective taking with a future self can close the gap between present and future selves.

Letters of Solidarity and Friendship: Czechoslovakia 1968–71 by Parker David (review)

SEER, 98, 2, APRIL 2020 388 technocratic future — the ‘combat readiness’ of East European states in case of Western attack was open to doubt. And military defence of frontline borders with NATO had, after all, been the very purpose behind the Warsaw Pact, from 1955 onwards. Department of Humanities Matthew Stibbe Sheffield Hallam University Parker, David (ed.). Letters of Solidarity and Friendship: Czechoslovakia 1968– 71. Bacquier Books, Holmfirth, 2017. 436 pp. Illustrations. Timeline. Notes. Index of letters. £14.99 (paperback). David Parker, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Leeds, presents us with a collection of correspondence between his late father, Leslie Parker, and a doctor in Czechoslovakia, Paul Žalud, who spent the Second World War in the United Kingdom but subsequently returned to Communist Czechoslovakia out of a sense of duty. Although the two never met one another, they developed an intimate correspondence lasting from 1968 until 1971, the year that Leslie Parker passed away. The letters exchanged between the men represent a valuable contribution to our understanding of life in Communist Czechoslovakia during the first years of Soviet occupation and the onset of so-called ‘normalization’. In addition, Parker’s criticisms of capitalist society and injustices are insightful. Parker was a veteran member and functionary of the British Communist Party, whereas Žalud was a disillusioned Czechoslovak ex-Communist doctor (he left the Party in 1941) struggling to salvage his career and provide for his family in the provincial city of Ústí nad Labem. Their letters are reprinted here largely in their original format, and organized chronologically. There is a short introduction at the beginning and some reflections by the editor at the end of the volume. The exchange of letters was initiated by Parker after Žalud published a letter in The Times dated 14 July 1968 (published 19 July 1968) in reaction to their coverage of the pre-occupation Prague Spring. Žalud disagreed with The Times on why hard-line Communists in the Soviet Union persisted in their belief that the liberalization measures adopted by Czechoslovak party leader, Alexander Dubček, during the first half of 1968 were part of an imperialist Western conspiracy to undermine the Soviet bloc. Žalud referred to Karl Popper’s ‘conspiracy theory of society’ in order to explain Soviet thinking in his attempt to correct the impression made by The Times that the Soviet leaders felt the way they did because they were ‘prisoners of Marxist doctrine’. The point made by Žalud was that Soviet thinking had nothing in common with true Marxist REVIEWS 389 doctrine. The editor refers to some unpreserved initial correspondence initiated by Parker criticizing Žalud’s stance. When Žalud responded in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion, which occurred in August, Parker apologized and the friendly correspondence began. The first letter in the volume was sent from Žalud to Parker on 28 October 1968. Žalud mentioned that thirty thousand Czechoslovaks had already left for the West and that the Czechoslovak Communist Party was still struggling to preserve the sovereignty of the occupied country, but that the Soviets were interfering wherever possible. In his reply, Parker wrote of the social ills facing Britain and other Western countries. He also mentioned that Communists in Britain and other Western countries were torn by the question of whether antiimperialism meant always agreeing with Soviet foreign policy. Finally, Parker stated that the existence of the Communist countries in Europe was a good thing because ‘if they were to go, the salvation of humanity would be put back possiblycenturies’.Žalud’sreply(thefinalletterof1968inthevolume)tookissue with Parker’s notion that the success of the socialist revolution was sufficient to end ‘man’s exploitation by man’ by stating: ‘The expropriation of the means of production and the verbal declaration that the proletariat has been raised to the position of the ruling class is by no means a fool-proof device to do away with exploitation.’ The letters exchanged in 1968 demonstrate the differences in perception between Parker, an individual with Communist beliefs in a free country, and Žalud, who lived in Communist Czechoslovakia and experienced first-hand difference between Communist theory and practice. Over the course of 1969, twenty letters were exchanged. Parker initially wrote with the...

Missiological Implications of Conscience in Present-Day Roman Catholicism

During Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s Papacy, The Theology Of Conscience Has Taken On A Significant Role. A Developed Theology Of Conscience Emerged During The Second Vatican Council, Most Notably With Gaudium Et Spes, And Later Developed As Essential In Moral Theology. Francis Is The First Pope To Fully Embody Vatican II Teachings, In Particular In His Incorporation Of The Conscience Into Theology And Practice. During The First Months Of His Papacy, He Made It Clear That Conscience Is Crucial To His Theology And, In A Letter Exchange With A Prominent Italian Journalist, He Underscored Obedience To One’s Conscience As The Key To Receiving Forgiveness Of Sins. This Development Has Tremendous Theological And Missiological Implications For The Roman Catholic Church. KEYWORDS: Roman Catholicism, Pope Francis, conscience, missiology, morality, Vatican II, Gaudium et spes

Obstacles and Possibilities for Peace between Israel and Palestine

There have been various obstacles to resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the United Nations resolved to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. Some of these obstacles have been psychological, with both sides contesting the identity and narrative of the other. More concrete barriers have been the many settlements built by Israel in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967, totaling today over 500,000 Israeli settlers. The article addresses these and other obstacles, but it also notes the important changes that have occurred, making resolution of the conflict possible. These include the pragmatic 1988 PLO decision to create a state next to the state of Israel in the West Bank and Gaza, with a capital in East Jerusalem; the exchange of letters of mutual recognition between Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Rabin that preceded the 1993 Oslo Principles, and the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002.

The Poetics of Boundary Violation: Anne Sexton and Her Psychiatrist

In 1965, Frederick Duhl began a sexual relationship with his patient, poet Anne Sexton, whose previous psychiatrist, Martin Orne, had moved from Boston to Philadelphia. Little is known about this relationship, perhaps because Sexton was persuaded by health professionals, including her previous psychiatrist, not to expose Dr. Duhl. These professionals closed ranks behind Duhl, covering up the ethical misconduct, which may have contributed to Anne Sexton’s eventual suicide in 1974. Apart from documented reports elicited by her biographer, Diane Middlebrook, information about Duhl’s sexual misconduct is limited to his personal correspondence with Sexton, which Sexton preserved. The exchange of letters between them, including examples of Duhl’s amateur poetry, provides an unusual opportunity to investigate the dynamics of sexual boundary violations in psychotherapy. Sexton represents her bewildered feelings poignantly in letters to Duhl, whereas Duhl’s stilted efforts to respond to her emotional needs reveal a disturbing pattern of envious appropriation.

Critical Theory in Times of Crisis

Book Review| March 01 2020 Critical Theory in Times of Crisis Critical Theory at a Crossroads: Conversations on Resistance in Times of Crisis, edited by de Cauwer, Stijn, New York: Columbia University Press, 2018, 256 pages, $35 (paperback), ISBN 9780231186797 Michiel Rys Michiel Rys Michiel Rys is a postdoctoral researcher for the Department of Literary Studies at the University of Leuven. He is currently working on a research project on the history and representation of precarity with a focus on German literature. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Cultural Politics (2020) 16 (1): 138–140. https://doi.org/10.1215/17432197-8017373 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Michiel Rys; Critical Theory in Times of Crisis. Cultural Politics 1 March 2020; 16 (1): 138–140. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/17432197-8017373 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll JournalsCultural Politics Search Advanced Search The inflationary use of the term crisis in public discourse and media to pinpoint particular events in the most divergent branches of society (finance and debt, economy, climate, migration, national and supranational political institutions, to name only a few of many examples) should make us suspicious. Critical Theory at a Crossroads deals with these crisis situations, as well as the manifold forms of resistance and theoretical analyses provoked by them. The book consists of eleven interviews with a well-considered sample of established thinkers across a variety of disciplines. Among the interviewees we find Rosi Braidotti, Jacques Rancière, Joseph Vogl, Wendy Brown, Antonio Negri, Tariq Ali, Saskia Sassen, Maurizio Lazzarato, Angela McRobbie, and Jean-Luc Nancy. The book concludes with a letter exchange between Zygmunt Bauman and Roberto Esposito on the latter’s theorem of immunity. In a thought-provoking and engaging introduction, Stijn de Cauwer, the editor... © 2020 Duke University Press2020 Issue Section: Book Reviews You do not currently have access to this content.

Taxing the Digital Economy – The OECD Secretariat’s New Transfer Pricing A-B-C and Alternative Courses of Action

This article, although already drafted after the publication of the OECD Secretariat’s “Proposal for a Unified Approach” in October last year, considers the request of many commentators at the November public consultation for a clear description of objectives and an assessment of how the proposed Unified Approach would meet these objectives. Most recent developments, like the public consultation in November last year, the letter exchange between the US Secretary of Treasury and the Secretary General of the OECD, and the resolution of the European Parliament seem to reflect some of the same doubts raised by the authors in this article. Based on the finding that the Unified Approach as combining two different systems hardly would meet the objectives and may – at the best – only be an interim step, the authors suggest a clear and courageous step by following either an amount A type of approach or a B/C type approach.

The American and Canadian wartime godmothers of Belgian soldiers. Joseph de Dorlodot’s Correspondence and Documentation Office (1915-1919)

ABSTRACTLieutenant Joseph de Dorlodot (1871–1941), a Belgian aristocrat and philanthropist, was the Director of the Belgian Correspondence and Documentation Office in Folkestone, England. This article uses the ‘Joseph de Dorlodot’ archive collection (Archives Générales du Royaume de Belgique, Bruxelles) to investigate the emotional support provided by the Correspondence Office during the First World War. Throughout the conflict, its mission was to facilitate the sending of mail between Belgians, to provide them with legal advice and to offer humanitarian assistance to those who were in material and emotional distress. This was particularly the case of soldiers at the front. In the spring of 1916, the Office set up a mail system between Belgian soldiers and wartime godmothers – ‘marraines’ – from Canada and the USA. Lieutenant de Dorlodot imposed a precise moral and political framework for correspondence, where an intimate space was created in order to strengthen patriotic sentiment on the one hand, and control masculinities and femininities on the other. Through their letter exchanges with soldiers, godmothers participated in the war effort by bringing emotional reinforcement to the front line, from their homes, through a type of caring work often ignored or at least disconnected from any notion of work in the history of the Great War.

Nazi KZs as gendered Jewish spaces? German-Jewish masculinity and the negotiation of gender practices in prewar Nazi concentration camps

ABSTRACTIncorporating space methodology and combining it with gender studies, this article looks at how German-Jewish men, in a space-specific environment, prewar Nazi concentration camps, came to adjust their understandings and practices of masculinity. The paper argues that performing pre-learned forms of military masculinity inside the camps vis-à-vis Nazi personnel, while simultaneously maintaining conventional gender norms in their letter exchanges to their families and spouses in the outside world, were of fundamental importance. Jewish men’s ability to adjust their practice of masculinity represented a defiant attempt of survival and control over their lives under an increasingly oppressive regime.

"Sie hat den Gegenstand": Rahel Levin Varnhagen's Subliminal Dialogue with Goethe

"Sie hat den Gegenstand":Rahel Levin Varnhagen's Subliminal Dialogue with Goethe Renata Fuchs In her essay "Rahel und Goethe" (Rahel and Goethe), Käte Hamburger (1896–1992) observes that "Rahels Gespräche, damals weit über Berlin hinaus berichtet, sind verklungen. Aber sie klingen nach und wieder auf in einem Briefwechsel" (113; Rahel's conversations, at that time talked about all over Berlin and beyond, faded away. But they resound time and again in an exchange of letters). In her response to Rahel Levin Varnhagen (1771–1833), Hamburger not only reacts to her writings, emphasizing the letter form as a supplement and extension of salon conversations, but also highlights the continuation of the dialogue that Levin Varnhagen had begun. The dialogue continues through time and space, as more authors and literary critics engage with this topic, thus keeping it alive and conforming to Levin Varnhagen's aspiration: "Dann ist und bleibt eine Korrespondenz lebendig" (Then the correspondence is and remains alive).1 Levin Varnhagen's lifelong correspondence project celebrates the connectedness and bringing people together according to Romantic symphilosophy, the optimal condition for literary and artistic creation.2 This article, based primarily on my interpretation of selected materials from the Varnhagen Archive concerning Levin Varnhagen's reception history,3 examines her dialogues about and with Goethe while shedding more light on her cultural and literary legacy in the context of her identity as a woman and a Jew. With her epistolary writing, Levin Varnhagen contributed to philosophical and cultural engagement through the creation of a network of people corresponding with each other and generating knowledge dependent on dialogue. In this article, I examine two forms of dialogue as they pertain to Goethe's role in Levin Varnhagen's life: Levin Varnhagen's "dialogue within the dialogue"4 about Goethe, and what I call her "subliminal" dialogue with Goethe. Specifically, Levin Varnhagen's interaction with Goethe and his work warrants reexamination of her emerging identity as a literary critic and a creator of diverse forms of dialogue. To make this point, I first revisit the immediate reception of Levin Varnhagen as a public persona and her place in society as a woman, a Jew, and a writer and the struggle with the gender-role division as it pertains to the aspiration of being published. I continue with the Romantic idea of sociability and dialogue and then discuss Levin Varnhagen's innovative communicative network. In the second part of the article, I discuss Levin Varnhagen's and Goethe's intellectual connection [End Page 101] through the notions of die Wahrheit (the truth), their interest in the philosophy of humanity, and, most prominently, through Levin Varnhagen's unwavering support for Goethe's work. At the end, I focus on Levin Varnhagen as a "grosses weibliches Genie" (great female genius) and "schöne Seele" (beautiful soul). Epistolary Engagement From the reception immediately following her death, we know that Levin Varnhagen's engagement in social life (the salon, literary criticism, involvement in politics), her ideas disseminated through the salon, and her writing influenced not only those in direct contact with her but also had a profound bearing on general public opinion in Prussia, in other German states, and abroad. In particular, her foreign reception is well-documented in the Varnhagen archive.5 Accordingly, during her lifetime she was widely known as an active figure in intellectual life and also wielded enormous influence as an example for emancipated women as well as independent and assimilated Jewish women. In 1835, Karl Gutzkow compared Levin Varnhagen with Lessing, the critical authority on theater (Seibert 404). Shortly after her death, Theodor Mundt summed up her contributions to various fields in which she was active, and not only reaffirmed her popularity and prominence but also argued that her engagement with Goethe's works and recognition of the universal relevance of his oeuvre transformed her into a literary critic.6 Levin Varnhagen built what we might consider one of the most valuable collections of letters in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Germany and became known as the leading Berlin salonnière and a great thinker of her time.7 While her work was always lauded for its unique quality, it was...

‘Black obsidian Diana’: Moore, Pound, and the Curation of Race

This essay concerns the entangled relationship between modernist experiment and race in the late teens and early 1920s. Taking its focus from an exchange of letters between Ezra Pound and Marianne Moore in 1918-19, it argues that Pound's urge to access pure thought conceives racial embodiment as a thickened medium that intrudes between ‘intelligences’ in conversation. Moore's indirect response, the essay suggests, is a citational practice that attends to the provenance and curation of textual objects, and especially to the cultural and commercial traffic between ‘orient’ and ‘occident’. This case is made in a new reading of Moore's 1923 poem, ‘Marriage‘, which identifies, along the way, Sarojini Naidu, John Cournos, and a five-inch Egyptian statue as mediators between Moore and Pound.