Re: The talking going on in one's head
AntiUtopia@aol.com
Fri, 22 Oct 1999 17:26:28 -0400 (EDT)
In a message dated 10/22/99 4:50:42 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
seandr@Exchange.Microsoft.com writes:
<<
Despite the endless, earnest, arm-chair philsophizing and intellectual
monkey-slapping of literary theorists, I don't think they have, or ever will
have, any plausible basis for making the claim, "This is exactly how
language works." Literary theory has certainly taught us just how vague,
ambiguous, and meaningless literary theory can be. I don't think they've
taught us much of anything about language in general.
>>
I had the feeling Matt was just a Little Bit Tongue in Cheek there, but I
could be wrong.
However, it's just as off to say they "haven't taught us much of anything
about language in general" just because the more recent literary theorists
are hard to read.
Derrida has made some very important and, in my opinion, inescapable
observations about language in at least some of his writings. There's a long
and hard philosophical tradition behind what he wrote, however, and unless
you're conversant in it, at least a little bit, it's all going to shoot right
by.
Jim