1 Calculating meaning in “Kubla Khan” – a rough cut William Benzon Revised Version, December 9, 2017 I’ve been working on “Kubla Khan” off and on for the last two weeks or so. On November 29 I issued a working paper entitled “The Problem of Form in ‘Kubla Khan’” [1]. I then set to work at delivering on the promises made or implied in the last section of that piece. The draft grew and grew. Which is good and not so good. The growth was easy in that I quickly identified what had to be done and was able to set about doing it, often by repurposing or elaborating on prose already written. In that sense it was good. Things were falling into place, at long last. But it was not so good in that it wasn’t at all clear just when this would end. Maybe the thing to do would be to write the (damned!) book. Well, yes, I’ll write the book. But that will take awhile. Meanwhile I want to get something out there for people to think about. I’ve decided to regroup. A JPG Preview I’d already sent out tweets with a JPG containing this material: Calculating “Kubla Khan”–Version 2 The numbers are line numbers in the poem. Start, establish the space: (1-54) Expand, establish two movements: ((1-36)(37-54)) Calculate 1-36 [first movement] and substitute final value: (XXIV(37-54)) We’re now ready to calculate 37-54 [second movement] (XXIV(37-54)) Expand, establish three components: (XXIV((37-41)(42-50)(51-54)) Activate first component: (XXIV((37-41)(42-50)(51-54)) Expand, establish three sub-components: (XXIV((37-41)((42-44)(45-49a)(49b-50))(51-54)) Activate: (XXIV((37-41)((42-44)(45-49a)(49b-50))(51-54)) Expand, establish three sub-sub-components: (XXIV((37-41)((42-44)((45-46)(47)(48-49a))(49b-50))(51-54)) Activate: (XXIV((37-41)((42-44)((45-46)(47)(48-49a))(49b-50))(51-54))