Quiet before the Fun

I have been doing some minor repairs and improvements to this blog. It looks somewhat more symmetrical now but, of course it will change all the time. On this particular occasion of change it was in reference to university beginning "on site" for me tomorrow for a new year and a new term (almost). I have been reading a lot over the so called "break" (really just a change of time table…working at night on texts and during the day with the family rather than the reverse during the term). Apart from Hillal Schwartz's "Culture of the Copy" mentioned earlier I have almost finished J Hillis Miller's "Topographies", which has been an education in itself. Miller is better at analysis of other critics than his own criticism I feel, and his account of Nietzsche has provided me with a renewed interest in his philosophy. I tried to read him 10 years ago but failed to grasp (perhaps I am sufficiently grown up now to attempt it again). Miller's own structuralism tends to paint him into corners as he follows a line of signs to the bitter end. His account of the beautiful poem "The Idea of Order at Key West" by Wallace Stevens misses much of the nuances of subjective and dialogic place I believe.