Pablo Massa ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Iskender Savasir:
>
>>Did I miss out on it or did noone really came up with the (to me) obvious
>>relevance of Borges's stroy Pierre Menard,, The Author of Don Quixotte to
>>this thread?
>
>Yes, this example is very relevant.  I've never understood why the
>imitation of a previous model --as an artwork in itself-- is perfectly
>legitimated in literature but not in music.  Some people reads "Pierre
>Menard" just as a magnificent literary joke, but others have built an
>entire poetic of literary reception after it.  ...

Well, I think it is a magnificent literary joke and find it hard to believe
that Borges meant it otherwise.

A somewhat similar, although far less worked out example is to be found in
David Lodge's Small World, in which Perce McGarrigal proposes analysing the
influence of James Joyce on Shakespeare.

Deryk Barker
[log in to unmask]