In the humanities and sciences, the role of the analogy has always been an important one.\u00a0 \u00a0Integral to religion, mathematics, literature, and the Law, is it any surprise that the good folks at Educational Testing Service (ETS) spend a great deal of time and effort composing the analogy section of the GREs?\u00a0 If anything, most of postbaccalaureate education seems to be the fine act of making and understanding relations\/hips.\u00a0 Of course, it has been said by those recently privy to the experience: \u00a0ETS takes it to a new level.\u00a0 Perhaps they have Mark Z. Danielewski on retainer.<\/p>\n
Mark Z. Danielewski \u00a0relies heavily on analogies to provide meaning and structure within the text.\u00a0 This is neither a new or innovative device in and of itself.\u00a0 What I’m struck by is not how many connections seem to be present in the text (through the benefit of the footnotes, appendices, etc.) \u00a0but how many of those connections are incredibly complex or just slightly irregular.\u00a0 Though he cites Derrida (111-113), Danielewski seems to move beyond simple binary oppositions.\u00a0 His pairings play with ideas that aren’t quite opposites or synonyms.\u00a0 Sometimes they may be from the genus, but their relationship is distinct and often tenuous.\u00a0 This produces a fun house effect in some places, pause for thought in others, and still others simply fall flat.<\/p>\n
Though\u00a0they may not be central to the text as a whole (but then again it may, wait and see), I keep returning to the appearance of riddles and jokes in the text.\u00a0\u00a0 Chapter IV discusses the issue at length, even going so far to quote from a fictional source.\u00a0 “Riddles: \u00a0\u00a0they either delight or torment… It’s beneficial to consider the origins of ‘riddle.’\u00a0 The Old English r\u0153delse<\/em> means ‘opinion, conjure’ which is related to the Old English r\u0153don<\/em> ‘to interpret’ in turn belong to the same etymological history of ‘read.'” (33).\u00a0\u00a0 Riddles require reasoning and interpreting, and (not unlike the analogy section of the GRE) may be ultimately unknowable.\u00a0 Riddles become the object of tension, jokes the release of that tension.\u00a0 But that is not to say that jokes are diametrically opposed to riddles.\u00a0 Jokes may also delight or torment.\u00a0 In the cold hallways of the house, Tom begins telling joke after joke to alleviate the tension of being alone or potentially alone in the company of a Monster.\u00a0 The punch lines of his jokes rely on making connections between two different things; like riddles, they require reason and deduction to make that jump.\u00a0 Tom may entertain himself with these stories, but what does it signify that he addresses them to “Mr. Monster”?\u00a0 Does it mean anything that there may be a creature present without the ability to reason in the same sense Tom can?\u00a0 In that circumstance, do his jokes become riddles?\u00a0 What does it mean if this Monster can get his jokes?<\/p>\n When one does not know what it is, then it is something; but when one knows what it is, then it is nothing. \u00a0\u00a0What is it<\/em>?\u00a0 [1]<\/a><\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Answer: A Riddle<\/p>\n 2 A Monster<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the humanities and sciences, the role of the analogy has always been an important one.\u00a0 \u00a0Integral to religion, mathematics, literature, and the Law, is it any surprise that the good folks at Educational Testing Service (ETS) spend a great deal of time and effort composing the analogy section of the GREs?\u00a0 If anything, most … Continue reading When one does not know what it is, then it is something; but when one knows what it is, then it is nothing.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[39,35],"class_list":["post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-6-mzd","tag-danielewski","tag-reality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=349"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":354,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions\/354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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