tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post1140275721416874709..comments2024-01-06T10:36:04.084-05:00Comments on A Commonplace Blog: Updating fallacyD. G. Myershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-41876211754355027362009-12-04T17:27:31.731-05:002009-12-04T17:27:31.731-05:00Ah. Well, maybe so. But I don’t really see anythin...Ah. Well, maybe so. But I don’t really see anything anxious about the reading procedure that I describe. If there is any anxiety involved, as a matter of fact, I’d locate it in the unfamiliarity of a new text.D. G. Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-55016224757284100882009-12-04T17:00:32.215-05:002009-12-04T17:00:32.215-05:00Yes, I agree that Bloom's concept applies to p...Yes, I agree that Bloom's concept applies to poets (though I think by inference he includes all authors), but I dared to borrow and expand the concept (which might surprise Bloom) and apply it to readers and critics because I believe the same dynamics are at work.R/Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07791522136032565027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-84292446732489338622009-12-04T16:57:26.046-05:002009-12-04T16:57:26.046-05:00The “application model” of criticism, in which a d...The “application model” of criticism, in which a dominant figure’s conclusions are extended to new texts, is indeed naïve.<br /><br />But the reality that I describe owes little to Harold Bloom. It depends upon Augustine’s account of reading a Psalm (in Book 11 of the <i><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3296/pg3296.html.utf8" rel="nofollow">Confessions</a></i>):<br /><br />“I am about to repeat a Psalm that I know. Before I begin, my expectation is extended over the whole; but when I have begun, how much soever of it I shall separate off into the past, is extended along my memory; thus the life of this action of mine is divided between my memory as to what I have repeated, and expectation as to what I am about to repeat; but ‘consideration’ is present with me, that through it what was future, may be conveyed over, so as to become past. Which the more it is done again and again, so much the more the expectation being shortened, is the memory enlarged: till the whole expectation be at length exhausted, when that whole action being ended, shall have passed into memory.”<br /><br />J. V. Cunningham quotes and discusses this passage in “Poetry, Structure, and Tradition” in the <i>Collected Essays</i>, pp. 143–44.<br /><br />As I understand it, the “anxiety of influence” applies to poets, not necessarily their readers.D. G. Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-89445647588310836672009-12-04T15:02:49.792-05:002009-12-04T15:02:49.792-05:00You say: "We read new books against a lifetim...You say: "We read new books against a lifetime of reading books, and as we open a new book we toss a net of expectation over its unread portion, which we pull back and adjust as we go along—as the book is converted from expectation to memory." <br />I say: Isn't this a bit like converting Harold Bloom's concept of anxiety of influence (in Bloom's usage, relevant to authors) and extending it to reading? We are, after all, repositories of all texts we have previously encountered, and either consciously or unconsciously we are "anxious" about new texts as we read them and attempt to match them against our critical judgment based on earlier textual encounters. Perhaps Seal's error--to the extent that there is one--can be found in what you seem to suggest is his treatment of Baym in isolation without awareness (or acknowledgement) of Baym's antecedents and descendants. This tends to be a naive approach to criticism in which the critic finds secondary sources that agree with his or her critical disposition and goals, and then conspicuously ignores either the flaws in the sources or the arguments from other sources, all in the name of furthering the already decided critical position. Hence, the critic denies--either consciously or unconsciously--the anxiety of influence that ought to be acknowledged and confronted.R/Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07791522136032565027noreply@blogger.com