breathing death

[juli@cabot.dartmouth.edu (Julian West)]

> [Kate's use of "without" in breathing..]
Brilliant observation, succinctly made, IED.  _NfE_ is the album I am least
familiar with, and I had not noticed this before.  It also reminds me of
the double meaning of "sensual" I called attention to yesterday.

> IED only knows of Tennyson's reference to nine waves ...
> perhaps we should ask Julian.
Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not the all-round literary expert you take me for.
However, I'm intrigued enough to consider doing a little library work on this
one. _I_ didn't know any references to _seven_ waves, so I'll try to track
some down. (Can you supply any?)  As I said only last week, another reference
to _nine_ waves can be found in chapter three of _Ulysses_.

I am so pleased to hear that disc jockeys are beginning to mention the source
material for _TSW_.

> [Death is a major theme of _TSW_, side one.]
Interesting theory! Care to elaborate?  I, for one, am convinced that the
album is more cohesive, both musically and thematically, than early reports
have suggested. Does anyone else have any other "connecting principles"?

> [Kate considered setting Joyce's words rather than writing her own.]
There seems to be no other way to interpret Kate's statement in the "London"
interview. If this is true it is, as IED remarks, extremely exciting!
Can anyone cite _any_ precedent for this in "pop" music?  Perhaps in the
future, other literary estates won't be so stubborn. (The Joyce estate
was never known to be the most cooperative...)

Julian