Looking ahead to ch. 24: "The words `implicit' and `explicit' come from plicare, which means “to fold,” as when you fold your clothes. So think of a sound bite as a suitcase."
W.H. Auden, "September 1, 1939"
All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exi sts alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.
Implicit meaning can be a folded truth as well as a folded lie.
Textual analysis and slow reading
Think about how one sentence relates to another. When you read the Declaration, think about the order of thoughts.
Think about the origins of terms in the document. Virginia Woolf wrote: "Words, English words, are full of echoes, of memories, of associations—naturally. They have been out and about, on people's lips, in their houses, in the streets, in the fields, for so many centuries."
Think about the historical context. A text without a context is a pretext. What did those words mean to people at the time?
Thinking about how the document relates to others (p. 33)
Thnk about what is missing. See pp. 22 on the 2012 campaign.
Think about the writers and speakers. What had they read? What did they think about? What was their purpose in this message?
King's last speech
RFK the next day
And Ted Kennedy eulogized RFK:
Patrimony
- Something that you inherit: heritage.
- Back to "I Have a Dream" "When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir."
Democracy
- What is democracy?
- Who decides who "the people" are? What is citizenship?
- Why is the word not in the Declaration or Constitution?
- What are the conditions of democracy?
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