Very Bad Wizards Episode 192: Postmodern Wet Dreams (Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote")
Jul 7, 2020
Exploring the complexities of authorship through Borges' story 'Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote'. My Little Pony fans address their Nazi problem. Delving into cancel culture and media sensitivity. Benefits of therapy with BetterHelp sponsorship. A detailed analysis of Menard's rewrite of 'Don Quixote' challenges notions of originality.
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Same Words, Different Contexts Matter
- Menard's project (to produce Cervantes' text word-for-word from his own context) is logically absurd yet provocatively framed.
- That paradox forces readers to ask how author context alters textual meaning.
Interpretive Context Produces New Meanings
- Reading a sentence as if written by a different author reshapes its philosophical resonances.
- Borges exposes how interpretive context can produce radically different readings from the same text.
Fame Can Muffle A Work’s Vitality
- Borges shows that treating texts as untouchable treasures can deaden them into reverent misreadings.
- He argues some veneration (fame) is 'a form of incomprehension' that strips vitality from works.