Re: Camille vs. Jim, round Three :)
Matt Kozusko (mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu)
Fri, 11 Sep 1998 22:13:07 -0400
Jim Rovira wrote:
> Ok. Let's suppose the writer intended to achieve a specific
> effect--horror, for example. He wants us to be scared poopless when we
> read his works. This can be conscious or unconscious, to me it makes no
> difference. This doesn't mean he actually acheived his intent. We are
> still left with a text that means what it means and does what it does
> regardless of what the author wanted it to do.
I've not been following this thread, even though it's probably my duty
to do so. By way of atonement then: remember my crackpot theory about
Salinger wanting readers to think that Seymour is going to shoot Muriel
just before he shoots himself? If I'm right--and I am--and if readers
don't generally think that Seymour was going to shoot Muriel--and they
don't--then the above point is spectacularly vindicated.
--
Jimmy Delicious mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu