Nth or no, this is true and just. But I'm currently under the spell
of a few pages in Gordon's book, which I re-read recently. Still, I
wouldn't activate it if not invited to. I was about to write "if it
didn't invite me to," but remembered that the invitation to read a
particular text that way may come from several sources-other readers,
other texts.
One of the thrills of coming across the mangled My Bookhouse version
when I was 10 or so was the sense that was a fuller bigger better
representation (complete with gorgeous pictures) out there, Somewhere
Else, and some day I would find it. And I did. And I still am. -h
>>Yes, but still and at the same time, the allegory does NOT read itself.
>>And, yes, this is the nth time you've heard that. But it is true that the
>>allegory does nothing in and of itself. A reader has to activate it.
>
>Bill Godshalk
>
>
>
>> > >>This is very idle. If they do not meddle with the
>>> >>allegory, the allegory will not meddle with them."
>>>
>>> Not to wrangle, but according to my post-Hazlittian mentors, it does
>>> meddle. It gropes, it seizes, it obsesses, it ruins. I've been
>>> tangled in, strangled by, painted dragons. When a small boy; when an
>>> old man. It was both terrifying and yummy.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> >Belatedly -- the Dylan quote about being tangled in the allegory makes me
>>> >think of a favorite passage from Hazlitt's "Lectures on the English
>>> >Poets," when he's been commending to his readers the beauties of various
>>> >passages in The Faerie Queene (including the caves of Mammon and Despair,
>>> >the Gardens and the Bower, the Mask of Cupid and Arlo Hill):
>>> >
>>> >"But some people will say that all this may be very fine, but that they
>>> >cannot undertake it on account of the allegory. They are afraid of the
>>> >allegory, as if they thought it would bite them: they look at it as a
>>> >child looks at a painted dragon, and think it will strangle them in its
>>> >shining folds. This is very idle. If they do not meddle with the
>>> >allegory, the allegory will not meddle with them."
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >Ken
>>>
>
>***************************************
>W. L. Godshalk *
>Department of English *
>University of Cincinnati Stellar disorder *
>Cincinnati OH 45221-0069 *
>513-281-5927
>***************************************
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