semiotics

[Sean Mannion]

"the claim of privileged knowledge of "context" or "intention" or
"meaning" is truly difficult to support, especially considering that
this would be a meaning constructed by the decoder as opposed to the
encoder. In fact, it seems certain that an encoder is ultimately
incapable of enforcing any significant control over what the decoder
does with a given sign-vehicle."

Will the concept of 'convention' figure in here at all?  Or is this another 
aspect of linguistic phenomenon conveniantly overlooked for the sake of an 
easy theory and a 'one-size-fits-all' method?
...As for that last sentence - I don't know anybody who takes that idea even 
remotely seriously.

>From: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: semiotics
>Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 04:58:30 -0600
>
>Glenn Scheper wrote:
> > lecture series:
> >http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/epc/srb/cyber/sim1.html
>
>good stuff!
>"the claim of privileged knowledge of "context" or "intention" or
>"meaning" is truly difficult to support, especially considering that
>this would be a meaning constructed by the decoder as opposed to the
>encoder. In fact, it seems certain that an encoder is ultimately
>incapable of enforcing any significant control over what the decoder
>does with a given sign-vehicle."
>
>ie, any reader is free to misinterpret _Gravity's Rainbow_
>
>---
>1,6 - no Pirate, no Slothrop, I'm getting the idea that there's a
>viewfinder that isn't exactly fixated on any one character.
>
>I checked out the Wikipedia entry for Tunbridge Wells (where R & J
>meet) and learned that "The famous mathematician the Reverend Thomas
>Bayes lived in Tunbridge Wells" - I've heard of Bayesian analysis,
>perhaps at some point I can apply that to the text (-:
>However, the article goes on to cite a series of letters to the Times
>in the 1920's that were signed "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells"
>Also, Lawrence of Arabia mentioned the town in the movie of the same
>name (as Lawrence, that is)
>And, doing my bit for the side, I added a cite for Gravity's Rainbow
>in the article
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Tunbridge_Wells#World_views_of_the_town
>
>
>
>--
>"Acceptance, forgiveness, love - now that's a philosophy of life!"
>-Woody Allen, as Broadway Danny Rose
>