Johnny Quest

[Diana York Blaine]

Bill asks if it's the grail or the quest for it that matters in Galahad's
case.  I'd have to argue for the former, actually, since that narrative
seems to espouse a conventional logocentric episteme.  Christian ideology
cannot allow for any but a single truth, and indeed founds truth itself,
and so there's a one-to-one correspondence possible between the grail and
whatever it signifies--redemption? (Please don't take my dullard's lack of
certainty for the narrative's lack of certainty). Of course there's much
mystery and ambiguity within individual experience of religion and in
Christian narratives, but I don't think that translates into a final
ontological uncertainty--it just charts different paths to the truth.

Because meaning is possible, then, the quest becomes the quest for
meaning, and it's hard for me to see how that fetishizes questing over
finding/coming into meaning/salvation. Oedipa's quest, on the other hand,
undermines the possibility of discovering meaning (maybe) thus rendering
it, ta dum!, post-modern rather than medieval. And let's not forget the
grail-shaped beacon in Monty Python's version of this stalwart myth--the
discovery of this "lack" seems to riff on the idea of motivated symbols in
a similarly pomo way.

I think _Heart of Darkness_ marks a crucial turning point from motivated
to unmotivated quest narratives--it's both, eh?--but I am happy to be
dissuaded of this by compelling evidence otherwise.

 Diana

p.s.GO BUCKEYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!