Simon DeDeo wrote:
>
> On the subject of reference works on Pound: I was considering purchasing
> _A Companion to Ezra Pound's Cantos_, published by the UC press, 1993, by
> Carroll Terrell; does anybody have any comments on this work? A browse of
> it in the bookstore made it seem like a "must have", in some sense, for an
> understanding of the threads of Pound's historical/literary narratives.
>
> This might, I suppose, spark a discussion of the effect a Companion such
> as the above might have on a reading of the Cantos. Terrell basically runs
> each Canto line by line, picking out references and quoting relevant texts
> (primary and secondary). Pound himself didn't have such a rigorously
> analytical approach to what he brought in, and, given what he does with
> the traditional academic narrative of literary development in a book such
> as ABC's of Reading, it seems as if he himself saw Cantos' use of other
> texts in a far different light than Terrell does. Does, then, in some
> sense, a Companion actually distance the reader from the text more than a
> muddle-through-and-get-what-you-can reading?
 
For me, I found Terrell indispensable. The Cantos appear to me like
notes for oneself on learned and obscure subjects. At least, obscure
to me.
 
When fleshed out by Terrell some of these fragmentary notes are
quite a story, for example "I still have the mould."
 
Other details are perhaps not really needed, like the son of the
Bahai faith's founder in "Gubberton, or Ubberton or some damn
Suburbaton". His distress at trying to talk religion with the
camel driver is funny enough on its own. But the details are nice
to know.
 
It's a surprise to learn that the negro hanged for rape in the
Detention Center, in one of the Pisan Cantos was the father of
Emmett Till. I don't see how I would ever have known that without
Terrell. It's a detail that may not be significant. On the other
hand, maybe it is.
 
In my opinion, the way to use Terrell is paradigmatically (umm,
side-by-side, ok?)
 
I'm sure there are mistakes in Terrell, and sometimes he is maddenly
silent where I guess he doesn't know himself. Nothing's perfect.
But he's still useful, at least for me.