>A few serious questions. First, which sections are you referring to? It >may >be that there are those on this list for whom those sections are not >boring, >and who may be able to enlighten the rest of us as to the value and >excitement >that they find. Hmm, being caught without my copy of the cantos on holiday here, i can't give any specific referents in terms of line numbers or even whole cantos, but generally I find a decrease in enjoyment after about canto 26 until the mid 40s and even sections of rock-drill outside of 91-92. I suppose it's a selective reading on my part- I realise that's next to useless as a specific, and I apologise (note to self, remember to have text when making judgements in future), but I think my earlier assertion is one that more than a few people on this list might agree with. >Second, part of the enjoyment of reading Pound is to make >the discoveries that come with secondary and tertiary readings. To expect >to >understand a text immediately, or nearly so, reveals a bias on the part of >the >reader which is, if one thinks about it, limiting. I don't think i ever said anything about this and I certainly never meant to imply you should be able to understand the cantos by browsing them; what i am referring to is the inability of the reader of the cantos to understand large sections of it without help, i.e. things outside of the text such as terrell- how can you get a copy of Coke nowadays, how can you understand something such as the references to italian peasants (luigi is the one that springs to mind) or the DTM prisoners without a biography? You could easily say that 'within the text they are not important as people, simply for what their actions are', and therefore understandable purely as symbols within the text, but we're all so wrapped up in the circumstances of his life anyway that we do take them as people and not as symbols. I think i just resent that large part of reading almost any canto which is the drudge through the library for a reference that doesn't necessarily seem to matter- i don't think Ep ever learned that lesson from WCW's father well enough, that if it's a book you should call it a book. A lot of the time you're enlightened by source hunting, but too often in the cantos it leaves you cold. I think i've said a lot of stuff I don't necessarily agree with there, but it's a valid approach and one that a lot of readers of pound who are not as fascinated by him as we are would agree with. Rich _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself with cool emoticons - download MSN Messenger today! http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger