Self-awareness and Skepticism

While it's quite funny to see how far Fish's students can take an interpretation of the "poem" that was left on their blackboard, it is important to note that they were told it was a poem, not that they recognized it as a poem themselves. Only when the students were provided knowledge which, importantly, they trusted to be true did they begin to extract what poetic elements could be found in a list of names. "My students did not proceed from the noting of distinguishing features to the recognition that they were confronted by a poem; rather, it was the act of recognition that came first--they knew in advance that they were dealing with a poem-- and the distinguishing features then followed. (fish)" This seems to be the problem raised by Chandler in concerns with genre. Claiming that a movie is a comedy does not necessarily make it funny, but we may start searching for humor in what we wouldn't normally laugh at. Ever think about buying a certain kind of car? All of a sudden they seem to be in abundance on the road. It's not that you are intuitively in sync with what type of car poeple are buying at the moment, you're just paying more attention. Fish explains that it is, "not that the presence of poetic qualities compels a certain kind of attention but that the paying of a certain kind of attention results in the emergence of poetic qualities."

Where the danger lies is in the potential to start seeing things that aren't necessarily there: mentally manipulating a Camry until it looks like a Corvette to you - or worse, a Ferrari. Or, let's say, somehow turning a list of names into a coded Christian poem - and worse, actually making "sense" of it. Maybe that's why NationalTreasure 2 was made, people were fooled into thinking it was a good movie. The production company told them it would be, through trailers and advertising, just like Fish told his students the names were a poem. In Chandler's essay, a more serious situation is presented: "Some Marxist commentators see genre as an instrument of social control which reproduces the dominant ideology. Within this perspective, the genre 'positions' the audience in order to naturalize the ideologies which are embedded in the text."
Now, I know it's all opinion and maybe I sound pretentious, but it takes a sense of confidence to know what you like. That's the purpose of all this study of genre for me, self-awareness and skepticism. You can't take what the world gives you at face value, especially when the source of informations major motive is to make money.

That's where the Fish's students went wrong, they believed Fish. And, I don't blame them, I'd like to believe that Prof. Henkle wouldn't do such a cruel thing to us. But, he might (hopefully there'd at least be a lesson learned). I'd take the opinion of a car salesman much differently. He's trying to turn that Camry into a Ferarri.

I think my favorite poem might just be a list of names.