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September 13, 2004
Text and context
When I was pretending to study German at Indiana University, one of our professors urged us to consider only the text, not to read things into the text. This he probably did to force us to concentrate on the German. Ich bin einfach zu faul eine Sprache durch lesen und schreiben zu lernen.
For lazy students of foreign languages, that may be good advice. Yet I tend to agree with Borges, that context carries as much meaning as the text.
In that state of mind, I'm very slowly reading another book that Stu lent me, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Written nearly a hundred years ago in Britain, Tressell's book almost seems more real now as we relive it. If Dilbert seems too silly, have a look.
Posted by Mark at September 13, 2004 08:38 PM