NP "the formerly colonised coming back to haunt us"

[jbor]

on 21/12/02 4:19 AM, Dave Monroe at davidmmonroe at yahoo.com wrote:

> And few here are less concerned
> with "authorial intent" or whatever than I am, either,
> so ... no, me, I'm generally (as one might note I, we
> necessarily must) speaking from the reception end of
> things here, so ...

But there is a production "end" as well, of course, which can be discussed,
and which can legitimately influence how a text is "received" and
interpreted by a reader or viewer. Personally, I don't think it pays to
ignore deliberately either what the author has said about the text or the
actual context/s of the text's production, because when you do you run the
risk of jumping to a wrong conclusion, such as thinking that Tolkien's
trilogy was written "'about'", or in response to, the Second World War.

And I'd say it's far more likely that the release of the second 'Lord of the
Rings' movie instalment was designed to coincide with the Christmas
holidays, rather than having any sort of "similar resonances" with current
world events.

Speaking of which, it seems pretty obvious that US foreign policy vs Iraq is
following a fairly familiar and well-trodden Machiavellian path. A bit of
sabre-rattling here, troops and weapons deployed and at the ready there, war
deadlines set, Iraqi opposition leaders gathered together in London to plan
for the new government, explanations and apologies rejected out of hand and
new ultimatums launching forth on a weekly basis - all of it reported and
televised with gusto by the international news media. The idea being to
provoke Saddam into making a desperate first strike which would justify an
invasion. Or to encourage the opposing Iraqi factions to embark on a civil
war in the meantime, in the certain knowledge that support is close at hand.
All so the US can pretend they are still "the good guys" when the shit
eventually hits the fan.

It seems that ousting Saddam is going to be the bottom line. Let's hope
that, however it comes, it's a bloodless coup.

best