Re: a Daniel come to judgement

J J R (jrovira@juno.com)
Mon, 06 Jul 1998 15:32:57 -0400 (EDT)

On Mon, 06 Jul 1998 00:39:26 -0400 (EDT) JDHadden@aol.com writes:
>In a message dated 98-07-05 19:26:52 EDT:
>
><< I liked JD's post too, and I even used to think that way myself.   
>Then I
> looked closer and had to change my mind :)
>
>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?
>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.  

Ok, two issues.  

1.  What is communicated through a text?

Very, very few texts communicate only ideas.

In THIS type of text, ideas are communicated primarily.  In other types
of text, ideas are often communicated, but much more than that comes
across as well.  In my opinion, fiction writing and poetry is written to
communicate an experience.  

For example, I could say, "Wouldn't it be nice if we were all more
accepting and less self righteous?"

OR, I could tell the story of the prodigal son  :)  The single sentence
communicates an idea, the story communicates an experience in which the
idea is embedded.  If all you ever want to get out of any text is a
single idea easily summed up in a single sentence, then you can almost
always do that (eh, with fiction writing, not always with poetry) with
little argument.  But most of us, and I bet you too, like to look deeper
than that.  We like to see nuances, depth, something related to a deeply
held value system that would be made trite is summed up in a single
sentence.  

The second issue is:

That the ideas inherent in a text are limited to the author's
intention--that is the Idea that I am opposing here.  This too falls
within the realm of  "common sense"--have you never been misunderstood by
someone who completely understood your words?   Readers do not interpret
the author's original ideas, they interpret the author's words.  There is
no access to the gray matter in an author's head except for the author's
words, thus there is no location for meaning in a text except in the text
itself.  I distance text from author for the sake of fairness to the
author.  Not everything said by more complex texts could possibly be
found in an author's mind.  

>
>I hope that made sense...
>
>next...
> 
> << I promise you JD will too in less than three years.  It's not 
>corruption.
>  It's education. 
>
>Which can often mean the same thing.  Education may allow one to 
>better
>understand a subject (or sometimes not), but I refuse to let a 
>professor who
>is inherently no more insightful than myself (even though he may have 
>a Ph.D
>and can quote War and Peace) create my ideas for me.  An author's 
>personal
>reasons for writing is elusive, and no amount of education can 
>completely
>reveal those reasons.
>
>Until next time,
>
>JD
>

You are contradicting yourself, but that's not your fault, you're holding
to a contradictory position.  Your last sentence,

 An author's 
>personal
>reasons for writing is elusive, and no amount of education can 
>completely
>reveal those reasons.
>

stands in complete juxtaposition to your sentence in the above paragraph:

>still, it is the writer's original ideas that they are interpreting, 
>and they
>are creating no new ideas.  

We either have legitimate access to the author's mind--the whole of it
(as far as the text is concerned)--through a text, or we do not.  

Education doesn't hurt.  No one's out to change your mind.  I could care
less, personally, what you believe, and I know you're gonna learn someday
anyhow :)  The education you're gonna get at Emory will present different
points of views on the subject, all given with a certain degree of force,
and as a result of that process you will form your own opinions--

just like the rest of us have.   PhD's included. 

I wouldn't speculate on the outcome until you've been down the road :)

Jim  

_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]