Marsha:
RMP could have presented the MoQ as a treatise with tight syllogisms if
he wanted to limit interpretation, rather than within a semi-fictitious
literature
form. Besides, you are probably looking for a point to introduce Lucy and
the 'Hall of Mirrors' or some other such demeaning comic routine. I'm not
playing.
On Mar 31, 2011, at 12:36 AM, ARLO J BENSINGER JR wrote:
> [Marsha]
> The act of reading a text is like playing music and listening to it at the
> same
> time, and the reader becomes his own interpreter.
>
> [Mark]
> That is, that he had no control over the protagonist once the book was
> released. In fact, he was no longer an expert on the subject, we all were.
>
> [Arlo]
> Its funny to me that those who diverge the most from what an author has
> repeatedly said, are those that argue loudest that what the author said is
> irrelevant, but what they want to think he said is all that matters.
>
> That meaning is negotiated, that texts are deconstructed and reconstructed
> historically, that dialogue is an interplay of intent and interpretation, is
> really not much of a serious contention any longer. Derrida instigated and
> subsequent postmodernists have been developing and refining theories of
> "interpretation" is some form or another for decades.
>
> The problem is, the form of "interpretation" being pushed here is simply good
> old fashion subjectivism (by denying and dismissing "intent", which would
> constitute a dialogue), whatever I think someone meant is all that's
> important.
> And when the protagonist argues his intent was different, he can be summarily
> dismissed as not an "expert" on his own ideas.
>
> This is precisely the sort of inane nonsense that had Bo claiming Pirsig was a
> "weak interpreter" of Pirsig's ideas. And at this point we should dust off
> Ron's "interpretation" that Pirsig's MOQ supports rape and torture. Hey, why
> not, if that's how he "interprets" it, that's all that matters.
>
> And this is all part of the stuckness on "interpretative legitimacy", that the
> validity of what one says can't be questioned because any and all
> "interpretations" are just as valid.
>
> It gives two choices, the same problem of SOM, one between "soliloquy" and
> "interpretation", the same problem that confounded initial deconstructionists
> of everything being either (1) objective words from on high (what they were
> rebelling against) or (2) subjective thoughts about whatever "meaning" you
> want
> to give something (their solution).
>
> Sound familiar? It should. Its about as S/O mired as you can get.
>
> Luckily, other postmodern thinkers, like Bahktin, Bourdieu, Giddens, and many
> others, instead place "interpretation" inside a dialogue alongside "intent",
> and "meaning" becomes more than "my interpretation" but an ongoing dialogue
> where interlocutors intend-interpret meaning as they clarify and expand their
> ideas.
>
> In Marsha's and Mark's world, Ron's "interpretation" that Pirsig supports rape
> and torture is just as valid as any others, and should Pirsig protest he can
> be
> dismissed as not being an expert on his own ideas.
>
> In a better world, "meaning" is negotiated and refined as intent and
> interpretation play off each other over time. In this world, Pirsig's
> protestations about his intent WOULD matter, and certain "interpretations"
> would be seen as disagreements and divergences from "intent".
>
> We cannot, in other words, remove one utterance from the flow of a dialogue
> and
> claim that it exists in an intent-free vacuum, one has to consider instead the
> dialogue, which includes both intent AND interpretation, back and forth and
> back and forth, refining and evolving....
>
>
>
>
>
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