Re: Mr. Antolini

Malcolm Lawrence (malcolm@wolfenet.com)
Thu, 04 Dec 1997 19:01:32 -0800

Lagusta Pauline Yearwood wrote:

> ick...literary theory talk. yes, it gets irritating, and tiring and
> sometimes heartbreaking. yep, i'm an english major. and every once in a
> while i have a day diseased with theory when i just want to go home and
> read not in a deconstructionalist, post-structuralist (actually...aren't
> they the same thing? ahh! see, i can't stop it!), structuralist, ANY way,
> just READ. and sometimes i can't, (i don't think i'll ever read a poem
> again with out the phrase "patriarchical binary oppositions" popping up
> at least once. it's terrible.) but i am learning to trade that for the
> advantages learning about all this has given me.

This was the main reason I decided I didn't want to go into teaching, but just stay
happy as a reader and writer.

> i've thought about it *a lot* and i think there are advantages. i think
> the purpose to all this is to gain some kind of deeper understanding of
> the language. i mean, the people who created these theories obviously
> loved language. and i have actually gotten to a place where i let the
> theory make me love the text more, and understand it in all kinds of ways.
> i think it's so interesting because it's almost like a kind of
> secret language in that if you don't know it you can still like the text
> but if you do you can understand and see it on all kinds of levels.
> well, ok, so it's not like a secret language. maybe it's like...LSD?

Lit crit is like acid? Oh, I'd venture to say it's like pot. Reading James Joyce is
like LSD. :-)

> i think it has something to do with not being able to talk about something you love
> so deeply.
> wanting to let something stay inside, like a secret, a love so deep.
> salinger is like new years eve for me: very quiet, very personal, and it
> just makes me want to go sit in a corner and write in my journal. and talk
> about it a little as possible, please. it's sacred, almost. another year
> is passing.  this man wrote these books. it's to beautiful and
> heartwrenching to even talk about it.

Did you know that JDS was born on New Year's Day?