Delving into the complexities of interpreting literature, this chapter explores the dynamics of active reading, uncertainty of authorial intent, and the intellectual vitality of textual debate. It reflects on the satirical writing style of an author, highlighting the balance between complex language and self-deprecating humor. The discussion also contemplates philosophical questions surrounding authorship and the multifaceted layers of meaning inherent in literary works.
David and Tamler dive into “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote,” a very funny Borges story that also raises deep questions about authorship, reading, and interpretation. What would it mean for the same text to be written by two different authors more than three hundred years apart? Is this story the post-modernist manifesto that literary critics like Roland Barthes believed it to be? Or is the narrator in the story just a delusional sycophant, a victim of Menard’s practical joke – and the story by extension, a practical joke by Borges on the post-modernist movement to come?
Plus, My Little Pony fans finally confront their Nazi problem.
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