Re: PC or Mac?

["Frank Townsend" <ftownsen@iamdigex.net>]

You're arguing for what has been termed the "intentional fallacy," an
approach first criticized by proponents of the New Criticism (advocating an
objective theory of art), in the 1940s.

See http://www.cumber.edu/litcritweb/theory/wimsatt.htm

Michael Mahon's statement still represents fairly mainstream literary
critical thinking (although the issue is hotly debated at the extremes).


"Exegete" <millers@noneofyourbusiness.com> wrote in message
3C5ED07B.40408@noneofyourbusiness.com">news:3C5ED07B.40408@noneofyourbusiness.com...

> I'm not so sure that I'd agree with "seldom", and I certainly couldn't
> agree with that the author isn't the best judge of "wonderful hidden
> meanings" that he had not deliberated created.
>
> J.R.R. Tolkien, in his introduction (or was it the preface?) to Lord of
> the Rings attacked exactly the same point - he hated allegory as a
> genre, and LOTR was consciously not an allegory, nor was it a
> fictionalization of the Second World War, though he did acknowledge that
>   his experiences in the war could have colored his writing.