Marshall McLuhan in "Understanding Media" also makes a brief point about the rhythms of the typewriter and its influence on poetic form. He asks what kind of poetic influence the typewriter could have had on Hopkins. He also goes on to discuss speed mingling with "the cultures of prehistory with the dregs of industrial marketeers, the nonliterate with semi-literate, and the postliterate." Then uses W. Lewis' "Childermass" as a model for what he calls "accelerated media change as a kind of massacre of the innocents." I also agree with your statement that "The Cantos" has influenced other writers as a group of interconnecting short poems. Last year, my for my undergraduate senior seminar the topic of the class was "The Composite Novel": a group of short interelating stories that "can" also exist as a whole. Earlier this week I posed a question to the listserv regarding the influence Pound had on Faulkner (only one person was kind enough to respond). Faulkner's "Go Down, Moses" serves as a perfect example for your statement that "The Cantos" influenced other writers in developing not long poems, but short composite stories and poems. Oppen's poetry also has this element-"Of Being Numerous"? Other composite novels? Woolf's Monday or Tuesday. Canterbury Tales? Dubliners. Katherine Mansfield "A German Pension" Thanks Erik Volpe --- Everett Lee Lady <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >From: "Booth, Christopher" > <[log in to unmask]> > >Subject: Re: Thanks and query > >Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 07:16:13 -1000 > > >I suspect a stronger influence on writing/thought > was the typewriter. The > >typewriter had a profound effect on modernism's > brevity and layout, I > >suspect; it lends itself to a kind of mechanical > stutter; I wonder if the > >ease with which the keyboard flows will actually > bring back a more graceful > >mode of expression, in which sentences will follow > the breathing of the > >musical phrase rather than the imperative of the > carriage bell and the > >return bar. The quill pen & inkwell technology > suited well the phrasing of > >the prose style of its day; a period or a stop > marked by heavy punctuation > >meshed well with the time that a dip of a pinna > would last. > > Hugh Kenner wrote a very short fascinating book > called FLAUBERT, JOYCE > AND BECKETT: THE STOIC COMEDIANS, in which he claims > that the most > decisive influence was the invention of modern > printing. And his reason > is that only when books became typeset did it become > clear that we are > working within a finite universe, i.e. that there > are only a finite > number of books (of any reasonable length) which can > be written. > > Whether or not one accepts Kenner's main thesis here > (I, for one, do > not), the book offers a lot of very interesting > insights into these three > authors and the ways in which they changed the shape > of literature. > > --Lee Lady > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com