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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 2279979" data-attributes="member: 2205">You indeed said something about it, but you didn't refute it.  You also ignored what's actually in the text, like Esmerelda, whom I pointed out, who defies your statement that "racial stereotypes" are merely the result of culture.  You make a convincing case around the red and green men of Mars, but like I said, ignore everyone else Burroughs wrote about.  But you keep making the case about red and green men, which I've never once disputed.In any case, the entire ERB line of thought is a tangent, we're wrangling about details, and you're not really addressing what I'm trying to say about it anyway.  I've grown weary of the ERB discussion.  If having the last word means anything to you, I'll gladly concede it.  I won't make any further replies to ERB related discussion.How can an opinion be disqualified?  I'm mistrustful of a methodology that relies on interpretive opinions, and then trying to derive definitions therefrom.  Just because a connection, or symbolic link can be drawn doesn't mean that it should.  Your interpretation of Rand al'Thor; saying that he literally is Christ, is a perfect example.  He saves the world and he sheds his blood.  That makes him Christ?  That's pretty tenuous.  Certainly in the case of the latter feature, many people have done that, and we don't know at this point if Rand will die at the end of the series or not.  Does anyone who saves the world automatically become Christ, or at least a Christ figure?  How about the fact that Rand al'Thor, or more properly his former self Lews Therin Telamon destroyed the world as it was known 3,000 years ago?  Last I checked, Christ also wasn't a conquering figure, nor was he supposed to die in battle against the Devil.  He certainly didn't get it on with three hot chicks who were falling all over him, nor did he have two companions anything like Perrin or Mat who were essential to his success.  He had a people, but the Jews and the Aiel have very little in common, and the Aiel accept Rand (for the most part) while the Jews famously did not.  Yet you ignore these not-insignificant discrepancies with Christ as an iconic figure, and focus on the "well, he'll save the world and shed his blood."Pressing that argument a little --although not much-- you've also cast most games PCs as Christ figures.  You've cast most comic book characters are Christ figures.  You've cast almost every protagonist in almost every epic fantasy ever written as Christ figures.  Freakin' Elminster is a Christ figure; he's saved the world --more than once-- and he's lost hit points.Do you see why I have little patience with your methodology?  You can craft a symbolic link, sure.  I can craft symbolic links with practically every fiction I've ever read.  I can draw up a detailed point by point comparison of Jason Bourne of The Bourne Identity and Oddyseus if I wanted, but I consider that to be a waste of my time.  Just because I can make these comparisons doesn't mean that I should, or that anyone else should pay attention to them.  Beyond a certain point of near allegory-like one-to-oneness, symbolic interpretation breaks down to just some guy spouting off.  Some other guy can (and quite often does) spout off something completely different, and he's no less (or more accurately, no more) accurate than the first.  Both are certainly valid interpretations of the text, as are many others, but they're useless in terms of defining the texts, or more especially the genre to which the text belong, and frankly, they don't mean much to anyone besides the person who formulated the opinion in the first place.I never claimed to have any understanding of authorial intent.  In most cases, authorial intent is impossible to divine, which is why I favor a method of analysis that doesn't rely on it at all.  I'm talking about defining the genre based on what's in the story.  Authorial intent is immaterial.I really don't think so.</blockquote>

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