Death of the author

“The understanding of any text by the reader is independent of the actual meaning the author tried to establish within the text. “

That is the postmodern take on the topic, “Death of the Author.” It strongly argues that whenever a form of ‘text’ leaves the ‘author’ the author has no control over it.

Got my drift? It seems not, isn’t it? Read on

It so happened in the country populated by smart asses where people drank alcohol instead of water. The government (though enjoying the massive revenue collection from it was sad to see its people dying for a silly cause like alcohol. Desperate measures were taken to reduce the ill of its people.)

The government launched an awareness program. A team of experts would inform the common folks about the ills of alcohol. They used practical demonstration to support their theory. Otherwise it would have been hard to convince the naysayer villagers.

In one of such occasions, whole village had turned out to see the demonstration put by the health camp officials.

One of the demonstrators poured out some alcohol and some water in two glasses. Then he took two earthworms, still alive, and dropped them in those glasses. The earthworm dropped in the alcohol died after writhing for a moment. The earthworm dropped in glass of water came out from that ‘hurdle’ quite easily.

Then the demonstrator asked the people who had gathered to see the demonstration, “What have you learned from this?”

One smart ass replied, “Alcohol kills the germs of our stomach. Therefore we should drink it more.”

[ORO, O_O]

The demonstrator couldn’t even utter a word.