Monday, January 4, 2010
Diagnostic Reading Response
"Plato's Pharmacy" presents the written word in a different light. The main concept in this excerpt seems to be that text is often times too mysterious and ambiguous to come to any solid conclusions about the message that is being given. Derrida's reference to text as a "woven texture" indicates the many qualities and meanings that can be derived from written works, and the complicated process one must go through in order to discover the signification of what is being read. Using literary techniques such as metaphors, personification, and many others are examples of how the meaning of texts can be made ambiguous and, above all else, remain open for interpretation, even if certain interpretations seem more logical than others. Derrida also makes the point that it is necessary to re-read texts, as new ideas and meanings will come to mind with each new reading. Details such as symbols or other subtle concepts not seen before will become more obvious if a text is re-read several times. In addition to this, each individual’s mind is different; therefore, it is inevitable that people will have different interpretations of what they have read. Regardless of the various meanings found within a text, Derrida seems to emphasize the importance of thinking critically when reading.
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You make some really good points about metaphors and symbols, and how those make the text ambiguous and necessitate critical reading. I'd be interested to see what examples you might be thinking of, of figurative language with different interpretations. It's also interesting to think about what are the everyday uses of figurative language that we ignore. Like I was talking about in class, the use of "he" in Derrida is almost figurative, it symbolizes, supposedly, any individual reader.
ReplyDeleteYou seem like you understand Derrida's text really well. I didn't understand it as clearly as you did. When you mentioned that he interprets metaphors and symbols into his text and as I was re-reading his expert I saw some of the examples that you were takings about. I only saw one of them so, I would like to see what other ones you were referencing too.
ReplyDeleteHey Alison, I liked what you had to say about Derrida’s “Plato's Pharmacy". Pointing out what you said about literature and what exactly makes it complex and sometimes difficult to read is the metaphors and symbolic meanings that are hidden throughout many texts. I would agree with you indefinitely because often times as readers we read a piece of literature with confusion and uncertainty because the author is conveying some form of symbolism or complex metaphors which makes it much more difficult to understand literature at times.
ReplyDeleteDerrida is tough stuff. Your little mention about every person having a different interpretation for whatever reason sparked this question in my mind: WHY? why should people even bother trying to get messages across to each other if everyone interprets the message differently? More specifically, Im wondering why would Derrida deliver such an "important" excerpt in such a hidden (therefore highly open to interpretation) format?
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