[ilds] Durrell's Diction

[Godshalk, William (godshawl)]

How little we know?

How very little we are able to know -- in the best of times and places. Fallible -- limited -- never really sure --

Almost totally ignorant. No that's an overstatement. 

And then culture gets you and imposes its taboos. 

Life is a jest and all things show it -- 

Have a beer on me.

W. L. Godshalk *
Department of English    *           *
University of Cincinnati*   * Stellar Disorder  *
OH 45221-0069 *  *
________________________________________
From: ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca [ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca] On Behalf Of Charles Sligh [Charles-Sligh at utc.edu]
Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2010 5:01 PM
To: Bruce Redwine; ilds at lists.uvic.ca
Subject: Re: [ilds] Durrell's Diction

Bruce Redwine wrote:
> Which is not to say we don't make judgments and uphold standards all
> the time.  Even you, Charles.
>
Certainly.  I am ever anxious to underscore my subjective limits.  I do
that by setting those limits at the top of list.

All that I write is merely my way of seeing the matter.   And following
Pater, I believe that, given the difficulties of perception,
"discrimination" is the most important critical tool of all:  "Why do I
find or feel this and not that about the prose style?  What does this
prose style remind me of, and why?"

The important difference is that I do not insist on universal
categories, generalized categories, or ideal standards as the measure.
I do not insist that I am pronouncing according to anything greater than
my taste, my experience.

After all, every sentence above includes the first-person pronoun.   I
learned that reservation--that foregrounding of the subjective--in part
from reading /The Alexandria Quartet/.

C&c.

--
********************************************
Charles L. Sligh
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
charles-sligh at utc.edu
********************************************

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