Required Reading

[MantaRay at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/6/96 6:04:26 AM, you wrote:

<<You know, I read Tan's message and I still think it's reasonable to 
interpret or "over-interpret" along the lines followed by the student in 
the "4" essay.  Who would deny that cognitive maps are EXTREMELY 
difficult to "know," even within ourselves.  Tan can say that she never 
"meant" to create the design implied by the critic, but what does that 
*really* mean or "do" to the critique, invalidate it?  I hardly think 
so.  Haven't you, as writers, ever written something and maybe gotten a 
response that illuminated a perfectly logical pattern that you did not 
intend?  I have.  Am I just odd>>

Or why can't a so-called alternative reading employing an interesting, if
totalizing, theory be used to make the work that much more interesting
(especially with Tan, who needs all the help she can get). Criticism is as
much about itself as it is about the work, and that's what makes it so fun
and relevant. 

MantaRay