Burt Hatlen wrote:

>  The critical debate will be banal and
> unproductive until we can talk about the retrograde social and
> political views AND  the astonishing inventiveness of the poetry, AT
> THE SAME TIME.

When I joined this list a couple weeks ago I at first thought it was
that kind of debate I had come upon. The choosing up of sides seems
unproductive. It is unproductive even in respect to the "retrograde
social and political views," which are an interesting jumble if looked
at independently of a lust to defend or attack. Moreover, it seems
to me that the "astonishing inventiveness of the poetry" is not
independent from the struggle to control and order that jumble
which the poem registers. And moreover the very existence of
such a poem as the *Cantos* -- or rather the possibility of its
existence -- poses interesting historical and literary issues, issues
again which are difficult to explore in the context of choosing up
sides in an intellectual hockey match.

Carrol