[lit-ideas] Re: Form in literature
- From: Scribe1865@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 15:43:48 EDT
>Form and meaning are integral, so "form" cannot really be overemphasized.
M.C. Is this argument really valid? We could state it schematically as
follows : "If x (form) and y (content) are integral to something, then it's
impossible to overemphasize x or y.. Yet surely it is at least *logically*
possible
for me (1) to agree that both oil and vinegar are integral to making salad
dressing, and yet for me to also say you need at least one hundred times as
much
vinegar as you do oil to make a good dressing." Surely in these statements I'm
*both* admitting that oil and vinegar are integral to dressing, *and*
overemphasizing the importance of vinegar.
_____
To render form and content as x and y is to posit discrete entities that can
be separated, or exist separately and can be combined, as is the case with oil
and vinegar in salad dressing. Yet I have argued that form and content arise
together and exist together in writing, cannot be pulled off the shelf and
combined, as oil and vinegar are.
Nevertheless, let your analogy stand. Can you argue that the amount of â??
vinegarâ?? in salad dressing is equivalent to â??overemphasizing the importance
of
vinegarâ??? I think not, since palatable salad dressing by definition has this
disproportionate quantity of ingredients.
Take the analogy of ink and paper on a page of printed text. (1) If paper and
ink are integral to a page of printed text, it's impossible to overemphasize
paper. (2) If paper and ink are integral to a page of printed text, it's
impossible to overemphasize ink.
Both (1) and (2) seem true. â??A page of printed textâ?? is paper and ink
combined in a special way. Paper and ink are necessary conditions for â??a page
of
printed textâ?? to exist, but they are more than that. They are like sound and
silence: they arise together, and we are incapable of knowing one without
knowing
the other.
And the quantity doesn't matter, since a page of printed text could be a page
of Ronald Sukenikâ??s _98.6_ with one word on it (low quantity of ink) or the
entirely black page from _Tristram Shandy_ (high quantity of ink).
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
