perhaps you are right about their being all sorts of ways to find comfort--but comfort for those special nights away from home comfort seems to me to one of those ways for which Pound's Cantos are least suited (not unsuited).
  Am I the only one who senses--rather than assigns--a bit of the sentimental, the nostalgic, and the cozy in this idea of special comfort on nights away from home? The only one who is a little reluctant to sign on to it as the sort of comfort for which sometimes the Cantos are the only satisfaction? 
    It is true that when I hear such approaches to or characterizations of the Cantos, I am a little baffled. There seem to me to be so many other authors in time who provide far more comfort of the sentimental and nostaligic and cozy kind than does Pound. Perhaps I should just wonder at all the diverse ways in which people find their comfort, and leave it at that, as you suggest. 
 
>>> Joe Brennan <[log in to unmask]> 08/25 3:23 PM >>>
In a message dated 8/25/99 12:54:33 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
 
<< This sort of thing offers an intellectual comfort more than an emotional
one. Pounds journey is ever onward, and that is a hard comfort at best. It is
the comfort of the intrepid adventurer who knows that he will not die at
anything like home, warm in his bed, even though he carries the memories of
his journey, of his various self-constructed homes, with him.  >>
 
 
doesn't this depend on where one draws one's comfort from?  I've always
enjoyed just reading the cantos as first and foremost a poem, and despite the
vast referential field that supports it, have found satisfaction from doing
so.  but then I can also say that reading the supporting material also has
its comfort level.  it's useful to remember that this discussion stems in
part from Robert's assertion that the study of the cantos is mainly in the
hand of professional academics --"friendly professors", a position he later
modified, at the suggestion of Tim, substituting "serious" for academics.  I
see no reason why one can't derive comfort from reading pound -- even if it's
just the comfort of returning to a familiar work, and of the rich artistic
and aesthetic content that one finds there.  I may be wrong, but I get the
impression that Robert wants to keep folks from enjoying pound who're not
"serious" in the way that he describes it -- i.e., who're not studying it in
the way that he does.  the level of comfort that one may derive from reading
the cantos does not have to agree with the kind of bumptious sentimentality 
that Robert seemingly assigns to it.
 
joe brennan