Yea, a Daniel!
Matt Kozusko (mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu)
Mon, 06 Jul 1998 01:10:30 -0400
JDHadden@aol.com wrote:
> I'm afraid I don't understand. If the writer's purpose is not, as I
> suggested, to simply express his ideas, then what is he trying to do?
A writer "express[ing] his ideas" is just too broad a definition. What
do you mean by "ideas"? Do they include emotions? And what's the
difference, if there is one? And are you certain that writers
themselves know, even in general, what it is they want to express or
communicate?
> Obviously, readers (naive or critical, I suspect that there's not that much
> difference between the two) have the right to interpret whatever they read,
> and may often gain more through their interpretation than the author intended;
> still, it is the writer's original ideas that they are interpreting, and they
> are creating no new ideas.
Yes, of course. The law of the conservation of ideas in fiction. The
first law of thermoaesthetics.
For example, then, what are Salinger's ideas in, say, the first 13 lines
of "Bananafish"? Or any 13 lines, or any 2 lines? We can start
wherever you like.
--
Matt Kozusko mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu