Subject: Re: meaning in literature
From: Will Hochman (hochman@southernct.edu)
Date: Sun Jul 29 2001 - 10:49:18 GMT
I know we're not supposed to repost a previous one but this one is so
darn fine...I loved the phrase "Zealous symbol seekers" and well, to
nod my head up and down with robbie's final point!
Robbie's Poem
Somebody said that God created poems
to be smarter than poets
and while that's initially hard for me to swallow
something about it does to me seem
tasty
****
will
>(I think this is a bit late and I might have already missed the
>discussion, but school and work have kept me from the bowl for over
>a year now and I fear I'm already being forgotten. So better late
>than never, I suppose.)
>
>J.R.R. Tolkien flatly denied that he wrote allegorical fiction,
>saying in fact that he had hated allegory since he was old enough to
>recognize when it was being used. He said that fiction need not be
>allegorical to be applicable and that these two -- allegory and
>applicability -- are too often confused. Maybe this is only vaguely
>relevant, or even not relevant at all; but I've been thinking about
>it just hard enough that I'm now struck by some sort of relevance
>and I probably won't know until tomorrow whether I'm imagining it.
>So I'll talk about it now, self-deluded or not.
>
>As it often does, my gut wants to agree with Scottie. Zealous
>symbol seekers do tend to strike me unfavorably, although I am
>sometimes uncertain how much of the bitter taste comes from their
>claims and how much comes from their presentation. I am unsure how
>much of the fault lies within myself, but I frequently have trouble
>discerning symbol-heavy literary expositions from overtly
>pretentious displays. I am, however, sympathetic to claims that we
>can reasonably read between the lines at least to some extent,
>inferring that which is not strictly literal. Somebody said that
>God created poems to be smarter than poets, and while that's
>initially hard for me to swallow, something about it does seem to me
>to get at truth.
>
>Maybe Tolkien's distinction between allegory and applicability is
>the important one. Perhaps the poet has the last word about
>allegory but about applicability the poem speaks for itself and
>might have surprises even for the poet.
>
>-robbie
>
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-- Will Hochman Assistant Professor of English Southern Connecticut State University 501 Crescent St, New Haven, CT 06515 203 392 5024
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