I didn't say the other process is without value (although I suppose I /did/ not say it, sins of omission etc). If nothing else, the emotional charge of coming across something unknown and strange and resonant is considerable. But I mean, if you(general)'re that impressed, you want to progress to a deeper engagement with the text, right?

... and here was me trying to derail the conversation with recs. I'm sorry, I don't know what you think, or more precisely what you cut in order to make a clear line of argument. I may in fact take advantage of the invitation to bow out of this for a while; all this moving-targets stuff is making me seasick. mixed metaphors ftw

Those footnotes are neat, what's the code for the superscript numbers?