Quote:
|
Originally Posted by ilduclo
next up should be Nazi Literature in the Americas, pretty much has it all
|
yes, it's hard to find in spanish in the USA-- i don't wanna read the translation (blech). i've got it in some kind of interlibrary loan waitlist or something.
----
glice and suchfriends: there are a bazillion ways to talk about literature other than interpretation, just like it is possible to talk about abstract art without asking "what does it mean"? music has no meaning and yet gets discussed here all the time.
as for the idea of interpretation as a pleasure: similar to the enjoyment of taxidermists. the pleasures of literature include things like the beauty (or horror) of a well chosen word, the amazement of creative syntax (which does not exclude things like jarring syntax when called for), the joy of a fortunate image, the enjoyment of evasion (literature as escape), and the immersion in an alternate reality (which, if the writer is good, it will be more fascinating than your own dull reality), the awe at the construction of intricate plots, the fleshing out of memorable characters, the emotional rollercoaster of a good story, the display of virtuosity from the part of the writer (like we get from watching a good musician perform), the pleasure of new knowledge, the delight of an expanded imagination, the poetic rhythm of good prose, so on and so forth, all of these elements compounded and played against each other, in an infinite combination of delights. none of which has anything to do with the question "what does this represent/symbolize/'really'mean?"
i'll skip the additional perorations & refer you directly to the holy saint sontag-- bless her delicious mind.
http://www.coldbacon.com/writing/son...pretation.html
She ends by saying-- "In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art. "