Yeah, I didn't mean to sound too much to the other extreme. I think there are thought systems that have affinities with texts (say, Zen and Salinger), and thought systems that are artificially imposed on texts (say, a Marxist reading of Salinger). The latter is what I was complaining about. Salinger does use a mix, but the feeling I get that his Christian and Jewish influences were filtered first through Zen. But at the same time, we always impose our thought system upon the text when reading it. In a sense, it's inescapable. But the more specific, detailed and worked out are the beliefs, and the more narrow the values represented by those beliefs, the greater the chances are of kinda raping a text rather than reading it. Unless the author shared those beliefs... Thanks, btw, for the Vico reference. ANYTHING to make Finnegan's Wake more intelligible is appreciated :) Jim <<And finally Jim who i'm really replying to in respect for the dance lit always does...when thought systems and texts mesh/clash I think it's pretty possible to track reading tracks...for example...not that _Finnegan's Wake_ made trendous sense to me or anything, but after reading Vico's _New Science_ I felt more at home in the Joyce text...Vico may have been an author Joyce was reading while writing FW...but in all honesty Jim I enjoy both "thought system tracking" in texts and personal/creative rambling. There's usually a clear time and place for both types in academe...funny but the mix is here too and we do use salinger texts almost like joyce reading vico to continue waking...have I kissed the ground this list stands on lately? will>> ___________________________________________________________________ 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/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]