Manifesto?

[nrenka]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)" 
<catlady at w...> wrote:

<snip>

> Anyway, it seems to me that some texts have taken on "a life of their
> own", separate from authorial intents, because the texts are
> widely-read and the author is completely unknown, such as the Iliad.

The author may be unknown, but the culture that the author was in is 
not unknown.  So if you want to understand Homeric epic, even on 
a "what does that word mean?" level, you have to put it into a 
cultural context.  The instant that you agree to do that you have 
violated one of the fundamental ideas of some deconstructionist theory 
(there is only text and they are cut free from their origins) and 
restored some sort of authorial presence.  What that means for JKR is 
a little messier, but "Britpicking" might fall into this category.

-Nora notes that her Greek is rusty, but Homer is fun once you figure 
out the different contractions