GeekinthePink

I was reading on one of the blog’s about a defense of an innocent reader. I agree with the general class consensus however—there is no innocent reader. Why? I don’t think a child can be an innocent reader either. Certainly, a curious or excited child may read a book in order to achieve a certain level of pleasure from it; otherwise, why would they be curious or excited to read it? I think even kids are biased. And if even kids are biased, an adult reader has to be biased. Even when I do not wish to read something (certainly not my postmodern culture material however…..you know that is FASCINATING reading), I have a negativity toward it before I start it. Every reader has to be biased. They have to.
One of the most fascinating points I have been thinking about since class is the thought that a book, written by any reader, actually means nothing until you as the reader apply meaning and subtext to that piece. I must admit, the idea of me and Hemingway working together on a work is quite appealing to me. But you know, it’s really true. A book—a perversion of any writer, undoubtedly—was intended for a certain meaning; and though we may not grasp this, we do have our own understanding (whether influenced by commentary or not). Hemingway is not sitting in the chair and force-feeding us his iceberg theories (and if he were, they would certainly not be iceberg theories anymore, and neither would it be literature), and so, we only get what we get. I’ve always struggled with this idea in poetry—sometimes, writing poetry is so frustrating because people do not fully fixate on the ideas you thought you conveyed. And yet, we must remember—it doesn’t matter. You can’t force any meaning on anyone else. Your work, however you feel, is a signifier waiting to be signified by each reader. After that, it is theirs to create with.
Interesting ideas on 7-Eleven being the 7th Heaven of the Tmesis (ooh yeah you like that don’t you). I don’t think it disproves Anamnesis’ theory about the empty signifier being a dark spot in our generation, however. The functionality of language is something postmodernism tends to expose. Why do we have words that mean nothing? Don’t we have enough to adequately describe a product? And furthermore, doesn’t this take a little more creativity to compose a sign using words we have, and also, more understanding and visualization?