i wonder if anne carson knows dorothy sayer's sonnet in "gaudy night" of which i am reminded, here, in carson's preface to "eros: the bittersweet". carson, discussing kafka's story "the top," writes:

the story is about the delight we take in metaphor. a meaning spins, remaining upright on an axis of normalcy aligned with the conventions of connotation and denotation, and yet: to spin is not normal, and to dissemble normal uprightness by means of this fantastic motion is impertinent. what is the relation of impertinence to the hope of understanding? to delight?

the story concerns the reason why we love to fall in love. beauty spins and the mind moves. to catch beauty would be to understand how that impertinent stability in vertigo is possible.

i like that. "impertinent stability in vertigo"