"Go, litel book," he bids the manuscript that's soon to be out of his hands. "That thou be understonde I god beseche!" Had Chaucer stuck around to witness the ensuing six hundred-plus years of literary discourse-and the past few decades in particular-he might have concluded that, when it comes to being understonde, the litel books aren't the ones you have to worry about. It's the big ones that'll get you.