Re: unfortunately, more
Ed Fenning (ed361@yahoo.com)
Mon, 16 Aug 1999 18:19:09 -0700 (PDT)
--- AntiUtopia@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 8/16/99 6:06:17 PM Eastern
> Daylight Time,
> rbowman@indigo.ie writes:
>
> << '... So we're not really trying to recover
> the author's
> "intent" for the piece, but we're trying to
> reconstruct
> cultural codes ...'
>
> Cultural codes, Jim? What are they then?
>
> Scottie B.
I wrote this early this afternoon before this recent posting by Jim but
it "didn't take" when I tried sending it. I'm trying to retype it as
best I can from memory, faded by a couple of hours of desk grinding
paper pushing:
I think I understand what Jim meant in his posting. When I read it
earlier today, I immediately understood 'reconstruct cultural codes' to
mean (I think) being somewhat similar to how Jason referred to it in
his posting that followed - the song's historical significance; what it
meant to people of that era when they heard it. This morning, I
couldn't really put what I felt, my reaction, into words.
That
> song title, in the story, served as a "cultural
> code" for the
> visuals/feelings/setting/mood, communicating all
> that simply through its
> mention.
The "visuals/feelings/setting/mood" described as "cultural code" seems
to me a more precise theoretical way of describing historical
significance (no put down meant Jason :) - I didn't call it 'historical
significance' but I might very well have arrived at a similar
description - I do think your term is a good and encompassing one).
I've never done serious literary analysisn and have only the vaguest
idea of what theories such as deconstructionism are about so I'm
feeling my way here.
>
> All language is a series of cultural codes. The
> English spoken by Salinger
> is, therefore, just a shade different than my
> English. He can communicate in
> codes lost to me but meaningful to someone of his
> own generation -- you :)
> This only works retroactively, I think. You can
> hear an REM song today in
> its own setting. I can't hear the music of the 40s
> -- early 60s in its own
> setting. It's not that much of a stretch for me,
> but it still is a little
> bit of a stretch.
- Jim
You're onto something. Sometimes, I think I can stretch and get the
vaguest empathy of a song's earlier setting. Specifically, listening
to 40's Standards dealing with romance and trying to imagine their
immediacey (sp?) for a generation that while experienceing the first
time heady feelings of adult love (as all generations in their 20's do)
and having these songs as their anthems, is doing so against the
terribly frightening backdrop of a world war.
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