The chapter explores the complexities of analyzing literature from different perspectives, discussing the implications of authorial intent, reader interpretation, and the elasticity of meaning derived from texts. It debates whether knowing the author's intended meaning is essential, and how readers bring their own perspectives to the reading experience, shaping their understanding of texts. The conversation delves into the active role of the reader in interpreting literary works, advocating for engaging with texts from new angles to appreciate them in unique ways.
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.
Sponsored By:
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links: