Jason Malik has left a new comment on your post "I just don't get it . . .":
“I am skeptical of some of the connections that we make in class. Some times I feel that the writer had no intention of making a connection but we force one out.”
As we have said in class: “You cannot know an author’s intention. You cannot crawl into an author’s head – especially dead ones – except through the words of the text in front of you.” Did Flannery O’Connor intend for the three shots fired by the Misfit to have religious significance. Who knows? We cannot get into her head; entropy and the grave have reduced that head to deliquescent mush. We CAN look at the text and ask whether a religious reading works. The Grandmother introduces talk of Jesus; that justifies the search for religious images – does it not?
Beowulf, on the other hand, illustrates why we must carefully follow the integrity of a text as we seek connections. Because the original bardic poet was not Christian, we must carefully distinguish between the original bardic voice and the later scribal emendations.
All of you have worked with the Odyssey, for instance, could you justifiably make Christian connections to that poem? The integrity of the text must be your guide.
"I believe that some connections that are made in English class are bologna. Though because Christianity plays an actual role in Beowulf, those connections are much more legitimate. The amount of connections and meanings that people derive from books are just too many. I highly doubt that authors mean for the book to be interpreted in those different ways."
ReplyDelete-William Rushton
I agree with William, each person interprets a passage/book/article in their own way because of the inability to keep their own ideas out of their interpretation. I highly doubt that anyone could find the intended meaning written by the author. Like William said "I highly doubt that authors mean for their book to be interpreted in those different ways"
ReplyDeleteI also concur with William. We do try to force out meanings that sometimes come out of nowhere. I think we should also be free to choose to interpret the meaning of a passage in the way we choose.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with the comments above due to the fact that we all have a right to derive as many connections within a book or passage that we see fit. It does not matter if the author did not intend one thing to connect to an other but similarities can still be drawn. Although the bard in Beowulf or in the Odyssey did not intend on making allusions to biblical stories, we can still connect the two texts in order gain greater understanding of recurring themes and events. Before this year how many of us really thought about relating the Higgs Boson to parts of speech and literary techniques, is that going to far? I do not think so.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if y'all think that Grandma's moment of clarity is a good or bad thing. I would be mad if I had my moment of clarity as I was dying.
ReplyDeleteI think that as the reader we have to make inferences based on the text. Maybe what we deduce is far from the writer's original intentions, but we have no way of knowing exactly what they meant at the time that the piece was written. The "hidden meanings" that are found by the reader certainly differ based on the time in which a text is read, but the different conclusions that are drawn can only add another layer of meaning to the possible intentions of that author.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the author thinks about what connections could be made to to the text during their writing process. But I do think it is very interesting that we can make connections even though they are unintentional. Pretty amazing! I think that everything is the world is interconnected, including literature.
ReplyDeleteIn class we make connections that I would have never have known or gotten, and its incredible to me to see how we got there. Each text is different and if one is trying to force a connection that is wildly off then let them, because if they make 9/10 bad connections that 1 will be amazing. And there is no way that any author could forsee that people would come up with so many connections and hidden meanings, but they did. I bet the author would've proud to see so many people deciphering their text word by word trying to find connections.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kevin. "I am human. Nothing human can be alien to me" applies to this discussion of interpretations and connections because although the author/bard may not have intended to create a connection found by a reader, does not mean the connection is not valid. The author and reader can be separated by centuries, but the connection is not necessarily alien to the text because of the time span in between, because we are all human, so nothing human is alien to us.
ReplyDeleteI think that part of an author's reason for writing is to give the reader the ability to make his or her own interpretations. Writing is a form of art that can be interpreted differently by each person. Just as a Picasso painting can be interpreted differently so can poems and stories. However, interpretations should be made based on textual evidence rather than wild assumptions.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea that the author did not write a book intending for all these connections to be made. I mean honestly there are so many different interpretations of books, some right some wrong, that how would the author have been able to come up with all them. The author writes the book probably with certain intentions and connections to be made but I doubt they sit down and decide what connections they want to be interpreted. Like Jules said "each person interprets a passage/book/article in their own way because of the inability to keep their own ideas out of their interpretation"
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jason in a way. With all due respect to Dr. Dupree and his genius connections, sometimes I am skeptical of his thoughts. At times I feel like we read so deep into a text that we come up with a new meaning for the whole story from a seemingly insignificant and minor detail. I understand that the beauty of literature is different points of view, perspective, and interpretation, but I wonder if the author honestly meant to have certain connections that can be made through deep thinking and research.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that an author meant for their works to be connected to other things in such detailed ways that we sometimes do in class. However, everyone is free to speak their own mind and interpret it the way they do. We are all different and all have different minds and connect things differently than our peers do. The connections that people make never fail to astonish me, and I find them quite interesting and make me more interested in the text, even though I do not think the author meant for us to make them.
ReplyDeleteI think rather than focusing on some of the sketchy connections created by Dr. Dupree we should focus on the methods by which he arrives at those connections. I think the class is more about learning how to make connections by seeing it done methodically and unceasingly than to memorize each connection that is presented to us by Dr. Dupree.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way to ever know the original intentions of an author. Each person and generation will interpret a text differently similar to the way certain words mean different things as years pass and our world changes. Take the word “fun” for example. Fun has the same general meaning to most people, but my parents’ idea of fun is completely different from my own. “Gay” is a word we discussed in class that likewise has changed drastically. The “hidden meanings” we extract from the text are only parallel to our time period and what little information we know from the past. A good example of a book with multiple “hidden meanings” is the Bible. A story that comes to mind is that of Noah, his family, and the ark. In the movie “Evan Almighty”, Hollywood interpreted the tale as a story of God’s love, family strength, and finding happiness. Other scholars declare that it is an ugly story of God’s wrath and disappointment in the world. Both sides can be argued well and really we can never find the “true” meaning. One often hears of “modernized” stories that have been updated to relate to our society For example, the more Cinderella is updated, the more the meaning changes due to the interpretations of the directors. However, I believe these modernized interpretations are a good thing, because they allow us to connect more strongly to an old tale that we could have only understood due to the basic principle, “nothing human is alien to me.” Interpretations are merely a way in which we can connect to the text and actually learn from it. An author puts there work out into to the world to BE interpreted , and while we may want to know what they originally intended its meaning to be, perhaps we gain most from their work through our OWN conclusions.
ReplyDeleteA poem never has only one meaning. That's part of what sets it apart from typical literature. Sure, the poet intends for his/her work to be interpreted a certain way, but the beauty of poetry lies in the fact that the same words mean different things to different people. Although searching for these interpretations may feel forced at times, that is only because we are exploring interpretations that we don't agree with.
ReplyDeleteI also somewhat agree that the connections we make are very subjective and sometimes can be bologna, because there are so many ways you connect just about anything you say to something in the book. That being said I agree that some of the interpretations make a lot of sense and it is kind of cool but overall, you can connect anything you want to the book.
ReplyDeleteI believe that a good author knows how to let the reader enter their initial thoughts, but a great author knows how to let the reader enter their initial thoughts and then feed off of them to create new perspective and intention. Books have an advantage in which they allow the reader to use the imagination. The reader can interpret the text in any way, shape, or form they choose.
ReplyDeleteThe best story is one that has no definite interpretation.
ReplyDeleteI firmly believe that Authors plant connections in their text on purpose. But, literature is so subjective that one could connect just about anything. As human beings we have the right to be as creative and "out there" as we want. That is what is great about our species. If we want to connect riding on a school bus in the third row to losing childhood innocence, I say GO FOR IT!
ReplyDeleteI agree with william. Even though there are some hidden meanings in the book i think we find more hidden meanings that the author didnt do on purpose. There are a lot of examples to this from the stories Why I live at the P.O and Good Man is Hard to Find
ReplyDeleteIts amusing how our connections ca make an author sound smarter than they really are
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