The Interpreter: A Self-Analysis
1973; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 4; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/468475
ISSN1080-661X
Autores Tópico(s)Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education
ResumoONFESSION. have a superiority complex vis-a-vis other critics, and an inferiority complex vis-a-vis art. The interpreter, molded on me, is an overgoer with pen-envy strong enough to compel him into the foolishness of print. His self-disgust is merely that of the artist, intensified. Joe, throw my book away. Sometimes his discontent with the secondary act of writing-with living in the reflective or imitative sphere-makes him privilege some primary act at the expense of art or commentary on art. He turns into Mystic or Vitalist. But, more often, he compromises by establishing a special relationship to what transcends him. Having discounted other critics, and reduced art to its greatest exemplars, he feels naked enough to say: Myself and Art. Like Emerson, who said that ultimately there was I and the Abyss. The more books multiply, or knowledge about them-the more secondariness-the greater the Protestantism of this stance. Each man his own interpreter; to each his own thing. No man is an island (except some Englishmen) yet it becomes increasingly necessary to insulate oneself from the flood. Ich waire im Material ertrunken, Auerbach wrote at the end of Mimesis, retrospectively calling his Turkish exile fortunate. Out of scarcity salvation: given the Library, and his scholarly scruples, the materials would have drowned him.
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