Jeremiah Wright
Once more, our old buddie George Orwell gives us invaluable guidance on how to best deconstruct the pronouncements of the Kansas City Star editorial board…
In the phrase above, taken from Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’, we hear the classic voice of authoritarianism. All groups in society are equal in theory but in actual practice the government favors those who are its most loyal political supporters, i.e. some indeed are “more equal” than others. The fact that the first part of the latter statement directly contradicts the second part can only escape someone with ideological blinders on.
The other way to analyze the Star’s offerings is to apply the methods of literary criticism, no matter how seemingly obscure. (I’ll admit I was formerly skeptical of most academic theory, just as I was skeptical of the writings of so-called mental health professionals. However, I read an article on “Narcissistic Personality Disorders” that succinctly explained a lot of otherwise inexplicable behavior by people I know so I’m willing to give the “lit-crits” a try!)
Literary deconstruction is an approach to analyzing writing, especially fiction.
It involves the close reading of text “in order to demonstrate that any given text has irreconcilably contradictory meaning rather than being a unified, logical whole.” If the text is by a KC Star opinion writer, you can be sure that’s true. Continue reading
