re P's intentions

[soren kierkegaard]

But wouldn't an interpretation built on the foundation of the artist's
intentions be more accurate?  That is what the artist meant to portray, that
is how he was hoping it would be interpreted.  The interpretations he
foresaw could, (maybe even should) be found for the sake of the artist, then
we can draw whatever interpretations or conclusions we desire, disregarding 
original intentions or following them.  The choice lies in choosing whether 
or not to search, not in the validity of your interpretation.  I can't say
I'm a huge fan of this approach but it does have merit.


>From: "Can't Wait" <yayforgod at yahoo.com>
>To: Doug Millison <millison at online-journalist.com>, pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: re P's intentions
>Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 11:34:59 -0700 (PDT)
>
>
>Yes I agree with you "Doug".  I was reacting primarily to a notion I
>thought I grasped a glimpse of in your post, something about the
>possibility of a Necessary knowledge of the artist and his intentions
>for the sake of a True, more-correct-than-all-others, interpretation,
>not too much knowledge or too little knowledge but just the right
>amount of knowledge.  Okay I can see now that me 'glimpsing' that was
>absurd...?  I am the last person on earth to knock mindless
>pleasures, even mindful pleasures, hell even good ol fashioned plain
>pleasures, especially where ill-mannered cranks (I prefer smug snots)
>are concerned, who never cease to knock my brain flat to the floor
>with the irony of the SERiousness with which they groove into a
>masterpiece originally titled, for God's sake, Mindless Pleasures.  I
>don't even Remember the book, my interpretations are based soley on
>what I pick up here (today I've thrown in cocaine-residued Tarot
>cards) and what I throw in mindlessly, carelessly, violently,
>mockingly, and my interpretation (whatever the hell an interpretation
>is, after all) are globs more interesting than the scholars', and
>every bit as right.  At least I think my interpretation of the
>Rainbow is more interesting (though I have one at the moment only in
>theory) than professor Monroe's (whom by mentioning I certainly am
>not implicating as a smug snot, necessarily, because I enjoy his
>style).  He probably has a quite contrary view on the matter.
>
>m
>
>
>
>--- Doug Millison <millison at online-journalist.com> wrote:
> > Couldn't agree more when "MichaelB" says that knowing about the
> > artist and the artist's intentions gives "pleasure to the process
> > of
> > interpretation, as hobbies do." I'm certainly not into this Pynchon
> >
> > reading thing for the money; maybe some of the people who do make a
> >
> > for-profit career of it -- or who would like to do --  are the ones
> >
> > who get so uptight about foreclosing the amateur's pleasures, or
> > maybe they're just ill-mannered cranks. It's also true that more
> > than
> > one esteemed literary critic has devoted considerable time and
> > effort to understanding a favored artist's life and work, I recall
> > as
> > I look at the copy of Jean-Yves Tadie's biography, _Marcel Proust_
> > on
> > my bookshelf (I just saw a copy of the English translation in Black
> >
> > Oak Books over in Berkeley yesterday) next to his masterful Pleiade
> >
> > edition of _A la recherche du temps perdu_, and manage to work a
> > knowledge of the artist into ther appreciation of the work.  If you
> >
> > want to put the artist and the art in "different worlds, different
> > galaxies, different universes" -- a proposition that seems absurd
> > to
> > me, unless you have some kind of special definition for "world,"
> > "galaxy," and "universe" -- go for it, but that doesn't mean that
> > other readers have to follow your lead.
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > d  o  u  g    m  i  l  l  i  s  o  n
><http://www.online-journalist.com>
>
>
>
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