the new limits of "novel" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[George Thompson]

JL: "a student platitude that rose to the level of an ironic proverb when I was in graduate school (mid to late '70s): "A poem can mean anything you want it to.""

I was told this, or words very similar, by a college secretary in the mid 1960s -- Gorham State Teachers' College, Gorham, Maine.

I replied with something lame, like "well, you have to take into account the text".

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.  Working on a new edition, though.

----- Original Message -----
From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 12:31 pm
Subject: Re: the new limits of "novel" (UNCLASSIFIED)
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> This reminds me of a student platitude that rose to the level of an ironic
> proverb when I was in graduate school (mid to late '70s): "A poem can
> mean
> anything you want it to."
>
> This was something that freshmen told us rather frequently, sometimes
> in
> disgust, sometimes with enthusiasm, sometimes (it seemed) on the basis
> of
> high-school instruction - misapprehended, I hope.
>
> GB turns up two exx. from books in the early '80s (only); the Web
> turns up
> over a hundred more raw Ghits.
>
> Fred might be interested for the next YBQ. Surely it's been thought by
> millions - though perhaps not very often before the cultural watershed
> of
> the hippie movement (fl. ca.1967-ca.1973).
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 11:09 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: the new limits of "novel" (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I cannot judge what may be preferable for others, but once you
> regard all
> > books as nonfiction, your pure spirit is liberated to live
> gloriously in
> > whatever reality you goddamned please.
> >
> > So it should be happening soon. (I trust you include all electronic
> > communications, including political Tweets, in the archaic category
> of
> > "books.")
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 9:43 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> >  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> > > Subject:      Re: the new limits of "novel" (UNCLASSIFIED)
> > >
> > >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > But isn't this situation preferable to what the opposite would be:
> > >  Regarding all books as nonfiction?
> > >
> > > --Charlie
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> >  ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org