13.2.03

ADDENDUM TO 'WELL': I hate to come out swinging for Derrida here (believe me, there are few things I like less), but you can take the insight through Wittgenstein, Shakespeare, or anyone who has ever said a pun-- words can mean multiple things, and how you read meaning into them depends on context. You might quibble with the strength of the argument, which is fine, but it's certainly an argument that has some basis historically.

And don't get me wrong, either, in this: I think cummings is "poetry" about as much as you do. Frankly, "mountainrange" and "mountainrage" keep the meaning exactly the same. It's not, say, Browning's "The Last Ride Together..." it's not even cummings' best work (the first poem here, and I will accept no argument to the contrary). But it does, I think, capture an element of the thing we tend to be most at odds over.

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