"I send you a message from Einstein
about the relativity of Us
darling, I love you more at this moment
than I loved you tomorrow
and more than I will love you yesterday" Pages 217-218 Canto Eight begins with a subtle reference to Jerry and Charles. This is the Canto where she meets Carousel Bill. If you haven't read Canto Eight yet (or any other future Cantos), you might want to stop reading this (and future posts) now. It will be near impossible from here on out not to give away a lot by talking about the next Cantos.
Linda bares her very Soul to us in Canto Eight. She tells of her very first sexual experience in the most romantic and sensuously poetic way I have ever seen in words. Carousel Bill is, of course, Snyder, who rhymes with apple-cider. To see Linda so very happy and hear her talk about the Love they shared, well it just brought tears of joy to me, especially with the bith of their first baby druid. But, alas, those tears would soon become tears of sobbing sorrow as Linda gets angry and impulsively says that she wishes her three children were never born. She didn't really mean it, but one by one each of her baby druids fell, even Anne with an "e."
We get to read about the wedding and how they "loped." And they could only afford a ring for her, not him. And we learn how the title of the book came to be. A recurring theme (that carries into future Cantos) is her unforgiveness of him for a terrible thing he did to her (times three). That unforgiveness drives him away. Canto Eight ends with no hope for a happy ending, with the divorce papers in her hand...
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"Never mentally imagine for another that which you would not want to experience for yourself, since the mental image you send out inevitably comes back to you." Rebecca Clark