Chasing ... Cutting

[Derek C. Maus]

On Wed, 30 Aug 2000, Terrance Flaherty wrote:

> Were you a teacher? How about it Derek, other teachers, students, book
> club members, etc., ever read a poem in class and have 25 or even 50
> students all agree that the poem is about something the poet (not
> prophet) had no knowledge of?

Hee, hee...yes. Two memorable examples: 

1) a student who thought the opening lines of George Herbert's "The
Collar" ("I struck the board and cried three times, 'no more!'") were
spoken by someone who was too overwhelmed in a sexual encounter--perhaps
an interesting Freudian reading?

2) a student who thought the unidentified operation in Hemingway's "Hills
Like White Elephants" was a breast augmentation--I am *not* making this
up.

> Nothing right or wrong with this, of course. If I read a passage from
> All's Quite and 50 students agree that it is about the Gulf
> War...that's wonderful, their common experience is what I value,

I agree, except I would probably also make the qualifier that _All Quiet
on the Western Front_ is *about* the First World War (specifically the
experiences of a single German soldier therein), but *applicable* (with
copious explanation) to conflicts ranging from the Punic Wars to the Gulf
War. It's *largely* a semantic difference, kind of like saying _Moby-Dick_
is *about* fishing (aquatic mammaling?) but *applicable* to a much greater
range of topics. Perhaps a specious distinction...dunno. It's worked for
me.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Derek C. Maus               |   "Heck, I reckon you wouldn't even be
dmaus at email.unc.edu         |   human beings if you didn't have some 
UNC-CH, Dept. of English    |   pretty strong feelings about nuclear
http://www.unc.edu/~dmaus/  |   combat."  --Major Kong, DR. STRANGELOVE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------