Speaking of words ...

[ed_rex]

... have you, Gentle Readers (and especially Laura!) - read Jonathon Swift's A Modest Proposal? I've been alluding to the damned thing for years. The other day ... er, <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/ed_rex/friends> one of you</a> ... suggested I actually read it. I did. It's much shorter than I'd imagined. Terse (in a legalesee kind of way). Dry and subtle - his academic-style descriptions of a suckling one-year old child, properly prepared his hilarious. Brilliant satire. I'm glad I've been paraphrasing its thesis for years.

Comments

[carnivalnights.livejournal.com]

Well, religion never enters into anything I do, say or read. So yes, non-sensical indeed.

There is no way to ever know what an author's intentions were unless you ask them directly. And really, it doesn't matter. I am quite sure authors would be rolling in their graves if they saw the way their works were being taught in high school, college or university.

People read things and have different interpretations of the same piece. I found more people in my class read it as a parody than as a real opinion though, including my professor and TA.