[Alamo-Girl]

Sometimes I wonder whether this nasty habit is a legacy of Jacques Derrida's literary theory, deconstructionism. In that theory, the author's point of view and purpose in writing are held to be perfectly irrelevant to the meaning of the text. Thus the "text" is reduced simply to so many words on a page, and you can interpret their meaning basically any way you want to. With the author (i.e., context) out of the picture, there's nothing to stop you.

Excellent point, dearest sister in Christ!

[betty boop]

With the author (i.e., context) out of the picture, there's nothing to stop you.

Sorry to quote myself here, but my statement represents only half of the enormity being perpetrated against reason itself by "killing" the author in order to "free up" the possibilities of "textual meaning." For the next thing such folks tend to do, is to resurrect the authorial corpse in order to "cite" him as an "authority" of the deranged, deracinated "textual meaning" they favor.

Talk about intellectual crookedness — and outright crooks!

Thanks ever so much, dearest sister in Christ, for your kind words of support!