Sunday September 10, 2006 How an allusion is possible
I'm not a big blogger, but I wanted to show my solidarity and THANK GORDON for the digital version of our reading. THANK YOU, GORDON!!!! I guess I should include some thoughtful content here, too. Dr. Orr asks how an allusion is possible:
When reading this allusion-thick stuff (I am thinking more Pynchon than Didion), I realize 1)how fun and rewarding allusion is 2) how potentially alienating allusion is because of 3) how much allusion depends upon the reader. I like the work allusion makes me do. I like writers who assume I read. Other people don't like it at all...
Also, I think that with the internet and the possibility of hypertext, allusion is possible in a new, reader-passive, less alienating (but more text-intrusive) way. I imagine novels full of blue, underlined text. When we read Balzac, we complain "he spent 4 pages describing one room!" Maybe one day we'll read something and say "It took me a day to finish a page because of all the hyper-allusions (or allusive links, or something...)" I imagine that kind of writing irritating the heck out of me. But then, I do it anyway on my own--I stop and search things...
Posted by skmckinn ( Sep 10 2006, 04:36:16 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [1]
You know, Kate, I've always approached such allusions by (1) feeling Particularly Smart that I got one, and (2) Reasonably Smart when I spotted one I didn't understand, and (3) enjoying a conversation about the book, because that's where a lot of stuff I didn't see but others saw (and also that I saw that others didn't) comes out. In short, I assume that the vast volumes of allusions are there to encourage and facilitate discussion and thought, as well as to continually open the text. But as for your idea about e-texts with links, well, I get a cold shiver on my spine, mostly because I think if the author wanted us ALL to get it the same way, he would have put it in the text as a footnote or something. (That, and it's hard to relax in a hot bath with your computer.)
Posted by Melissa C. on September 11, 2006 at 10:10 AM EDT #