tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post1814040043276400515..comments2023-10-30T12:26:15.822+01:00Comments on Research as a Second Language: Originality, Plagiarism and Pierre Menard, Part 2Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858865501469168339noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-37687252814575080472014-11-27T11:34:50.677+01:002014-11-27T11:34:50.677+01:00I think that's a very important point. I'v...I think that's a very important point. I've <a href="http://pangrammaticon.blogspot.dk/2006/06/library-lottery.html" rel="nofollow">never liked</a> the allegorical reading of Borges' Library that postmodernists are inclined to. I think you're right that something similar (and, yes, lazy) happens when Menard is made a symbol of the freedom of interpretation. ("Any old text will do.") As Borges says, a book "imposes" itself on the voice and memory of the reader. That suggests both caution in reading (a critical attitude) and care (compassion) in writing.Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04858865501469168339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-63827521896429462672014-11-25T20:45:34.571+01:002014-11-25T20:45:34.571+01:00I wonder about that part about trying out small va...I wonder about that part about trying out small variations and then returning to a text identical to that of Cervantes. That implies a photographic memory or the simple consultation of the text at the end to make sure it doesn't vary. <br /><br />Instead of a praise for the reader's freedom (the standard interpretation of the story) it is really about the tyranny of the text. The writer can write anything he wants (Cervantes, writing and improvising freely) but the "reader" figure here has cannot deviate from the text by one letter. <br /><br />Of course, we can read the story literally, or see the entire story Menard as an allegory of reading, translation, etc... So every reader, by reading, creates a new text simply by reading it as herself. That's the standard interpretation that I think if very lazy. <br /><br />Compare "The library of Babylonia" and "Funes el memorioso."Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09371893596402673898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-84404844560471810172014-11-25T16:12:25.244+01:002014-11-25T16:12:25.244+01:00Yes. (It's interesting: I had that identical t...Yes. (It's interesting: I had that identical thought as I was finishing this post, but decided not to open that specific can of worms.) I suppose the difference between duplicates of "The coffee is hot" and even a sentence fragment like "In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived..." is what is at the heart of the plagiarism issue.<br /><br />It probably is an allegory about plagiarism, just like <a href="http://secondlanguage.blogspot.dk/2007/05/unsuspected-discipline.html" rel="nofollow">"A Secret Miracle"</a> is an allegory about literary procrastination.Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04858865501469168339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-38789960402917443702014-11-25T13:40:20.564+01:002014-11-25T13:40:20.564+01:00On a small scale, the writing of identical texts w...On a small scale, the writing of identical texts written with differing and yet fully authentic intentions is readily imaginable. After all, the sentence "The coffee is hot" can be read as reflecting, at least, 5 or 6 six different intentions or speech acts - depending on context. Context is what can make a tiny thing like intention matter immensely. <br /><br />But on the larger novel-like scale, it becomes impossible to imagine exactly what Pierre Menard is doing. You write that it is "most difficult terrain imaginable". That terrain is, in any case, so difficult to imagine that I fail. It is certainly not mere sci-fi in so far as sci-fi is exactly suppose to be readily imaginable, only not (yet) real or actual. Presskornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03480116067878605339noreply@blogger.com