Re: JCO: Re: Black Water

I understand what you mean, Jane.  My undergrad English degree likes to emerge and dig for all manner of hidden meaning and allusions in everything I read.  Sometimes I think I miss the beauty in the flow of language itself.  It is fun to discuss books with others, to see how they interpreted this and that.  I wonder if authors find it interesting to see their works deconstructed, and how often we see things they never intended.

 

Lisa

 

>>> jward1108@hotmail.com 1/20/2006 1:56 PM >>>

It has been a long time (20 years) since I had to expound upon symbolic
and thematic elements in a novel. I remember graduate courses that made
me so frantic to find all the "allusions" that I almost missed the
enjoyment of reading. As one no longer involved in the academic world, I
now savor the flavor of the books that I read. What I have missed is the
open discussion and the differing interpretations that increase my
enjoyment and understanding. That is why I enjoy the discussions on this
mailing list; they help me appreciate aspects I might not have
considered if I simply read the books on my own.

What novel is JCO talking about "in which Alice in Wonderland . . .
figured heavily and deliberately"?

Jane

----- Original Message -----
From: "Randy Souther" <tinmachine@earthlink.net>
To: <jco@usfca.edu>
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2006 11:01 AM
Subject: Re: JCO: Re: Black Water


> >
>>When writers like JCO create, do you think they have these greater
>>themes and deep symbolisms in mind, or are they simply writing a good
>>story?  Is it we the readers who find meaning in the story?
>>
>
> I have no doubt that JCO carefully plans the symbolic and thematic
> elements of her novels, but it is possible to go overboard in
> extracting them. JCO once wrote, in regards to a seminar on her work:
>
> "Criticism ... is more an expression of the critic's mind than it is a
> description of the work of art itself. Even when allusions are playful
> and obvious, as in one of my novels--in which Alice in Wonderland, one
> of the novels of my childhood, figured heavily and deliberately--it is
> possible for the narrow, grimly rigid critic to overlook them, and
> snatch up other "allusions" which, in fact, do not exist. I was also
> amused and disturbed to see, in the same paper, dogged tracings of
> proper names back to their OE and IE roots, where of course they
> "mean" something--as what word does not?--when I had, deliberately,
> chosen names from a Detroit telephone directory in order not to choose
> symbolic, meaning-laden names. "
>
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