4.0181 Nature of Text; Misread Satire (2/45)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 13 Jun 90 18:27:35 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0181. Wednesday, 13 Jun 1990.


(1) Date: Mon, 04 Jun 90 22:59:30 PDT (33 lines)
From: MHEIM@CALSTATE
Subject: Text (God & Law)

(2) Date: Sun, 3 Jun 90 16:09:54-020 (12 lines)
From: onomata@bengus (nissan ephraim)
Subject: misread satire

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 04 Jun 90 22:59:30 PDT
From: MHEIM@CALSTATE
Subject: Text (God & Law)

In our recent discussions of what constitutes a text, and why at all
look for THE text, I haven't noticed anyone as yet mention the
theological-legal connotations of textuality in our Western culture.

Western religious and Western legal systems base their legitimacy on an
authoritative word, whether the word of God or the lawmakers' statutes
on the books. Our religious and legal traditions deem essential the
search for the original meaning and hence the original text. The
author's original meaning (found in the word) establishes the rule of
moral and legal life, and these together constitute the code of conduct.

The nature of other texts, literary or philosophical, seem determined to
a large extent by the theological-legal concerning text. Even when a
new philosophical text seeks, in the Niezschean fashion, to destroy the
theological remnant, such a text itself achieves a quasi-hallowed
status. Witness the paradoxically chic and academically successful
Deconstructive and postmodernist criticism. Even these efforts to
create "radical" texts devolve into fashionable authorities cited by
name and treated as demigods.

Might electronic texts change our respect for THE word? Will
they perhaps undo what books have proved powerless to accomplish?

Mike Heim
Cal State Long Beach

(2) --------------------------------------------------------------29----
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 90 16:09:54-020
From: onomata@bengus (nissan ephraim)
Subject: misread satire

Re: Humanist, 4.0125, 4.0144.


In Arabic, the noun "hajw" means both "satira" and "spelling". You got
both ambiguity, and spelling-misreading...
Ephraim Nissan
onomata@bengus.bitnet