>I agree with Jeff above if the items are enumerated in temporal order,
>but not always if in atemporal absolute one.
 
that is what i intended.
 
>It is most unlikely that
>young boys be influenced by parents or by local intellectual environment
>less than by books, while it is as much unlikely that a person of 45 or
>55 years old remains to be influenced only by the ambience during his/her
>childhood, and not by books.
 
this however, i'm not so sure:
i think the influence (esp in pound... his love and lasting firendship with
his folks throughout his life...) does remain a very important factor if not
checked. but i agree tho that it would not be the only influence.
 
>In the case of Pound, his anti-semitism
>became more and more vehement after around 1930. Interest in money is
>clearly one of the driving forces. But I guess he was probably influenced
>by some "Jew conspiracy" book also. And I believe that if the poet read
>the book by Webster when he was on an early stage of his anti-semitism,it
>would have exerted an influence on him. May be it drove him up to the
>next stage, or it confirmed his hitherto wobbly belief in conspiracy
>theory.
 
and thus it is built upon by the other influences over time. but this brings
up a whole other question: would pounds nagating of linear time undermine
this? did his belief in a non-linear mode of thinking sink in deep enough to
disrupt any kind of order like this?
trying to find that barb of time book...
jeff.
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        There are no hierarchies, no infinite, no such many as mass,
        there are only
        eyes in all heads
        to be looked out of
 
                             -charles olson, from "letter 6" (of the maximus                                    poems)