Get a bigger hamme

Matthew Weber · 31 Dec 2002, 17:15 · from urth-v0212.mbox · original

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From: Matthew Weber <mweber at library.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) Get a bigger hamme
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 09:15:32 -0800
Message-ID: <urth-v0212-2573 at digest.urth.net>
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>On Sat, 28 Dec 2002, Josh Geller wrote:
>
> > > The important part is that this is all for fun.
> > >                                            We're not gonna use the
> > > results to decide who lives and who dies.
> >
> > We're not. So far.
> >
> > Hopefully no one ever will. But who can predict the future?
> >
> > Give it time: another Thirty Years War might be fought over the opinions
> > expressed on this list.
>
>Um....well.  Ok, even given that mind-bogglingly unlikely scenario, why
>would it be more important that we talk about what Wolfe originally
>intended instead of about interpretations sompe people like better than
>his original intent?
>
>-Rostrum

Assuming that "original intent" is a thing that can be known in the=20
first place--even if the author's still alive, s/he may not tell the=20
truth, or may have forgotten, might think it unimportant, etc.

The New Criticism is an established literary fact, and kicking=20
against it will prove to be more trouble than it's worth.  Not to say=20
that authorial intent is unimportant, but it's not the Grail:  nobody=20
knows all the reasons why they do things (or psychotherapy wouldn't=20
be necessary).  There's a lot in any author's work that they might=20
not have consciously put there; why not take the time to tease it out?

Please note that the New Crit is NOT a free pass to spin isogeses=20
about Severian as a drag queen, Herbert Hoover in disguise, or a=20
Fungi from Yuggoth.

Matt

The fault is great in man or woman
Who steals a goose from off a common;
But what can plead that man's excuse
Who steals a common from a goose?
	The Tickler Magazine, 1 Feb. 1821

--=20

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