>From: Tim Bray <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: - Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine > <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: The Incoherence of the Cantos >Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 20:42:53 -0800 > >At 08:38 PM 18/12/01 -0500, [log in to unmask] wrote: > > >I would like to hear some discussion on the lasting importance of the >Cantos. > >Is it the great epic poem of the 20th century or a complete mess? > >I read poetry for pleasure not professionally - there is no >poetry I would rather read for pleasure. Hm... now that I >think of it, is being a great epic poem necessarily incompatible >with being a complete mess? > > >It, in > >fact, depends upon the glosses of scholars to render it readable; it is > >inscrutable without exegesis. The Cantos is simply not a self-sufficient > >work of art." > >What a load of crap. > >Given that to the extent that the Cantos have a subtext or an >agenda, it veers being incoherent and beign simply wrong, it seems >like the work has to stand or fall on the quality of the poetics, >which in the end is an aesthetic judgement. What role there for >the scholars? > > >This question seems to be exemplified in the whole problem of addressing >the > >Cantos in the singular or plural form. The Cantos is or the Cantos are? >Is it > >one thing or a miscellany? > >Now there's a good question. It's pretty clear that you couldn't >create an "elevator pitch [*]" for the Cantos. So suppose we grant >that it is a miscellany and lacks coherence. What then? > >Cheers, Tim Bray > >[*] "elevator pitch" - late 20th-cent business neologism. Scenario: >you the entrepreneur find yourself in an elevator with Jack Welch >or John Doerr or whoever and have the few elapsed seconds of the >elevator ride to express what your business does and why it's >great. >"Is it the great epic poem of the 20th century or a complete mess?" Does the phrase "false dilemma" ring a bell ? .... _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com