Amid the personalities and the insults here, actual ideas and insights sometimes raise their heads. Though an American, I read and enjoyed Roud's book soon after it was published. Now it's time for Jim Carroll to drag himself away from Mudcat mud fights and write his own book, drawing on his own experience and understanding. I would read that volume as fast as I could get it into my hands, and I expect it would be a welcome and valuable contribution.

The thread, however, has run its course. The debate will (and should) continue, but a scholarly argument laid out at book length would surely be a far more productive forum.