Sayings
of a Gadfly
by Max Maxwell
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UNPOLLINATED LITERATIThe Gadfly met a professor of literature. The professor said, “These ancient religious texts cannot mean to us today what they meant to the people who wrote them. We cannot know the authors' true intention from reading their work. Therefore, it is ridiculous to make those texts of such importance for modern life.” The
Gadfly said, “Is it true that we cannot know from an author’s works what was
intended? So what? We are not photocopiers; and literature is not fodder for
mindless machines. Rather, literature is food for living souls. If contact
with literature engenders something new within a soul, we do not face the death
of interpretation. We face the best of what literature has to offer. As pollen
passed from flower to flower engenders life, so it is with literature passed
from human to human. It is a tragedy of the heart and mind when we restrict
ourselves to the intentions of authors and new life is not allowed to grow. If
we are faithful in our reading of the great texts, but fail to read the text of
life, we have let die the very part of us which literature is meant to serve.” |
© Copyright 2014 Kenneth J Maxwell Jr.