Discussion on Chapter 7: Interpreting "Interpreting of Variorium"

            Chapter 7 is titled Interpreting Interpreting the Variorum.  Fish wrote this in response to a response to his article Interpreting the Variorum.  There were two professors that commented on his first article.  The first professor, Professor Bush stated that Fish was mounting an attack on the Variorum.  Professor Bush emphasized the resolution.  Bush like Ralph Rader claims the final understanding is the meaning.  Fish disagrees with them and emphasizes the act of reading.  Fish claims that the act of feeling doubt and struggling to find meaning during reading to be the meaning of the text. 

            Other critics claimed Fishes method of reader response is just teaching people to read a different way.  They claim Fish is not following the way that readers actually read.  Fish denies this claim and states he is just bring out what people naturally do during reading and that the meaning of the text is also found in the act of reading and not just in the text itself.

                I found this article very interesting just in the fact that he was commenting on a comment on his comment of a body of comments.  You can get lost in all the comments.   I do like this as an exercise for my students.  I am having read and comment on their peers work.  I have not let the writer of the report comment back.  I might let them write a reflection to address any comments that were given by either the teacher or the other students.  

I had not heard of Professor Bush so I did some research.  He was a professor at Harvard.  He was a known scholar of Milton.  I now have a better understanding about why he felt Fish was attacking Milton.  I found this article about Bush. The title was What Douglas Bush Stood For, by Edward Le Comte in his book, Mitlon Re-viewed: Tem Essays.

Milton Re-viewed: Ten Essays - Page 25

books.google.com/books?isbn=0815303068

Edward Le Comte - 1991 - ‎Preview

WHAT DOUGLAS BUSH STOOD FOR Miltonists tend to live long, I am glad to note. Is there something sustaining in their author? By way of anecdote: since A Milton Encyclopedia has entries only for the deceased, the editors had to find out ...

One book that Professor Bush wrote is John Milton: A Sketch of His Life and Writings.   He spent his life trying to find the meaning on Milton’s poems.