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Joined: Mar 2000
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
I believe there should be no "hidden agenda"
Impossible to disagree with this, but..
I think hidden agendas are falsely diagnosed (by deconstructing well-meant statements) just as often as they are overlooked by the intended recipients.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
This could have been the inspiration for one of his short stories in which William Shakespeare is brought forward in time to attend an English class. I don't recall the details, but I think he either fails the class or gets some form of rebuke from the prof.
k
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
I'm pasting below an excerpt from one of Emerson's essays in which he concludes (in this part of the excerpt) that our language is greater than our individuals. His is an argument that is contrary to that of the deconstructionists; he finds a pure form realized in the language of a nation. Anyway, reading it made me think of the readings on deconstruction, and I thought you all might enjoy reading a different point of view--and certainly debatable in particulars (but that's because Emerson is clear in his arguments positionally):
"There is a genius of a nation, which is not to be found in the numerical citizens, but which characterizes the society. England, strong, punctual, practical, well-spoken England, I should not find, if I should go to the island to seek it. In the parliament, in the playhouse, at dinner-tables, I might see a great number of rich, ignorant, book-read, conventional, proud men, --many old women, -- and not anywhere the Englishman who made the good speeches, combined the accurate engines, and did the bold and nervous deeds. It is even worse in America, where, from the intellectual quickness of the race, the genius of the country is more splendid in its promise, and more slight in its performance. Webster cannot do the work of Webster. We conceive distinctly enough the
French, the Spanish, the German genius, and it is not the less real, that perhaps we should not meet in
either of those nations, a single individual who corresponded with the type.
We infer the spirit of the nation in great measure from the language, which is a sort of monument, to which each forcible individual in a course of many hundred years has contributed a stone. And, universally, a good
example of this social force, is the veracity of language, which cannot be debauched. In any
controversy concerning morals, an appeal may be made with safety to the sentiments, which the
language of the people expresses. Proverbs, words, and grammar inflections convey the public sense
with more purity and precision, than the wisest individual." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Book regards,
Where's Waldo?
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
I love Emerson. I won a prize for inventing a better mousetrap once, but really it was because I linked it with the famous quote:
"If a man write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbour, tho' he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door."
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Joined: Aug 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
>>After all, sometimes a cigar really is just a cigar.
Thank you Max. You beat me to it. It amazes me that people think there ALWAYS has to be some subconscious meaning hidden behind the writing.
I remember reading a poem called Dirt by Robert Service in highschool, here's one verse...
"It's dirt and sweat that makes us folks
Proud as we are today;
We owe our wealth to weary blokes
Befouled by soot and clay.
And where you see a belly fat
A dozen more are lean...
By God! I'd sooner doff my hat,
to washer-wife than queen."
The teacher insisted on creating a whole subtext of meaning to it. I saw splendor in the fact that Service was paying tribute to the laborers to whom we owe so much. He says so, right there in black and white. Needless to say, I didn't get a very good mark on that paper.
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