I'd say the burden of proof is on you.

GAVIN

Tim Romano wrote:

> Gavin,
> What evidence do you have to show that the way the Cantos appear on the
> page reflects Pound's intentions, and is not merely a compromise he was
> willing to make given the nature of the publishing industry? (You may want
> to read or reread _ABC of Reading_.) One could make valid aesthetic
> arguments for or against a long unbroken line; one must take care not to
> raise mere publishing convention to the level of aesthetic authority.
> Calling me a philistine for raising the issue doesn't advance the
> discussion or support your position.
> Tim Romano
>
> At 03:26 AM 9/26/01 -0700, Gavin Francis wrote:
> >And while we're at it why not clean up some of those smerary lines in some of
> >Matisse's intaglii, soften some of those sharp corners in Picasso and Braque,
> >and best of all, get rid of some of those pesky Chinese ideograms in the
> >Cantos
> >that nobody can understand anyway--because let's face it--there's just nothing
> >like a good solid rectangular block of nice, tightly kerned good old
> >Times-Roman. I'm certain that's what Pound had in mind.
> >
> >And you're right--you should let sleeping logs die--you posited this same
> >argument a year or so ago. And people who still use Tex are still blockheads.
> >
> >Gavin
> >
> >Tim Romano wrote:
> >
> > > Tim,
> > > Any reason why you eschewed CSS?  One could wrap each line-segment in a
> > > <div> and specify the indentations in style, using custom classes:
> > >
> > > .in1 {
> > > text-indent: 6em;
> > > }
> > >
> > > .in2 {
> > > text-indent: 9em;
> > > }
> > >
> > > That would get rid of the phalanx of non-breaking spaces.
> > >
> > > On a literary note: I'm not yet convinced that the indentations are
> > > actually called for. They seem to be Pound's concession to the original
> > > typesetters, given the narrowness of the page he could reasonably expect a
> > > publisher to offer, a concession that he might not have made had the page
> > > widths been more ample. Inasmuch as the HTML "page" is like an opened book
> > > that has no binding crease, HTML offers twice the page-width, in a manner
> > > of speaking. Under modern circumstances, Pound might like to see his lines
> > > unbroken on the virtual page.
> > >
> > > We took this subject up briefly a few months ago, and I'd like to hear more
> > > from those who disagree with me on this.
> > >
> > > Tim Romano
> > >
> > > At 07:55 PM 9/23/01 -0700, Tim Bray wrote:
> > > >I have a mouldy old website that I haven't maintained in years,
> > > >but it has a scrapbook thingie that rolls interesting
> > > >quotations and meta-quotations through once every week.  This
> > > >week there's a piece of Canto CV featuring a fairly aggressive
> > > >attempt to get the indentation right in HTML.  Go to
> > > >http://www.textuality.com/ and hit the "Worth reading" link.
> > > >  -Tim