[ExI] John C. Wright Interview

Randall Randall randall at randallsquared.com
Sat Jan 26 21:22:08 UTC 2008


On Jan 26, 2008, at 2:10 PM, Lee Corbin wrote:
> Randall writes
>> On Jan 25, 2008, at 7:31 PM, Damien Broderick wrote:
>>> At 04:12 PM 1/25/2008 -0800, Lee quoted Wright:
>>>> It ["Ulysses"] has the same relationship to a real novel as a
>>>> Rorschach blot has to a real painting. As in a Rorschach
>>>> blot, any meaning, including parallels to the Odyssey, can
>>>> be invented freely by critics and students of literature and
>>>> shoehorned to fit.
>>>
>>> Does this look like gibberish to anyone except a Philistine?
>>
>> It's so *obviously* gibberish that I'm not sure if you're
>> joking (because of the way you put it, here).  I get waves
>> of spam that looks like that.
>
> I empathize. The bottom line, as always, is:  there is no
> accounting for taste.
>
> But your phrase, "*obviously* gibberish", has to be too strong,
> since clearly upon study you'd find some intricate patterns, and
> probably some impressive renderings of the human condition.
> (I would suspect that you might consider that you have better
> things to do with your time---as I certainly do.)   Besides, we
> are told that some parts have a lot more appeal than others.

Yes, we are told that.  I haven't read any Joyce, so I have no
opinion on any of his stuff not pasted here.

I do want to clarify that when I said it was obviously gibberish,
I both understood that it might not be to others, *and* meant it
in the most basic sense of "obvious".  Looking at the text Damien
sent, I literally could not tell whether he was joking about it
being Joyce -- it seemed equally probable that he was having one
on, expecting everyone who'd actually read Joyce to get that
this wasn't his, as that it was actually something Joyce had
written.

If I had come across this without provenance, I would only have
skimmed it before deciding that there was no meaning in it.  I
really do receive spam which looks remarkably like that, broken
stream-of-consciousness, lack of punctuation, and all.  Perhaps
those spams are copypasta from Joyce, for all I know.

As for what I'd discover upon study, I'm not sure if what I'd
discover is there in the text, or if the text is incidental as
Mr. Wright suggested.

--
Randall Randall <randall at randallsquared.com>
"If I can do it in Alabama, then I'm fairly certain you
  can get away with it anywhere." -- Dresden Codak






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