The Cantos

[version]

is it good?

@Mr. Tea liked it.

Cyclonopedia

Well, I didn't start on Sunday as promised but finally opened it yesterday and I'm only a few pages in but I thought I'd start a thread to see if anyone has any thoughts. The first things that sprang to my mind so far: Blobjectivity - that's a joke right? All this stuff about the significance...

dissensus.com

 

[luka]

Say no more

 

[Mr. Tea]

SHADE IS BEING CAST

 

[version]

Got it. Still waiting for the Prynne and Negarestani though. They've been minutes away for hours yet still haven't arrived.

 

[luka]

It makes sense to read the Pound first in any case. Let's get started.

 

[version]

They did actually arrive in the end. The Prynne thing's huge, like a textbook.

 

[luka]

Have you finished this yet @version

 

[version]

No.

 

[luka]

Have you started this yet @version

 

[version]

No.

 

[version]

I started about six books, so I took the bookmarks out of all but one in an effort to actually make some decent progress.

 

[version]

I've flicked through it and read a few online though. I guess I'll just have to skip the stuff in other languages.

 

[luka]

There are online guides to the cantos so the translations are easy to look up

 

[version]

Is there some sort of ascent that takes place throughout the cantos? I'm assuming he starts in the land of the dead for a reason. Is he doing Dante via the Greeks?

 

[version]

This is my favourite bit on first read,

Sun to his slumber, shadows o’er all the ocean,
Came we then to the bounds of deepest water,
To the Kimmerian lands, and peopled cities
Covered with close-webbed mist, unpierced ever
With glitter of sun-rays
Nor with stars stretched, nor looking back from heaven
Swartest night stretched over wretched men there.
The ocean flowing backward, came we then to the place
Aforesaid by Circe.

 

[luka]

Is there some sort of ascent that takes place throughout the cantos? I'm assuming he starts in the land of the dead for a reason. Is he doing Dante via the Greeks?

He gives a structure for it somewhere, but like lots of these things I'm not sure it's very rigidly adhered to. I think I can find it for you.

 

[luka]

A. A. Live man goes down into world of dead.
C. B. 'The repeat in history.'
B. C. The 'magic moment' or moment of metamorphosis, bust through from quotidian into 'divine or permanent world.' Gods, etc.

 

[version]

He gives a structure for it somewhere, but like lots of these things I'm not sure it's very rigidly adhered to. I think I can find it for you.

He cannot make it cohere.

 

[version]

A. A. Live man goes down into world of dead.
C. B. 'The repeat in history.'
B. C. The 'magic moment' or moment of metamorphosis, bust through from quotidian into 'divine or permanent world.' Gods, etc.

Yeah, so it's got that sort of trajectory.

 

[version]

I don't think there's a lot to say about this one. It's just The Odyssey. Elpenor falling off the roof.