Words are, for some, living creatures.
They persist in being and as such they insist on being noticed. The bound and covered, silent sirens contained on the leaves between the book’s cover.
If words live, then literature can possess.
If I read and share the a sentence that crossed Plato’s eye and mind too, has time and distanced ceased?
If most celebrated literature spouts from the community of dead authors, their words become free of their original sin of the author(s) having possessed physical existence. The sentences are not devalued by the messy work of the author living his/her life at this point. The lens becomes free from the shackles of selfhood. The lines now belong to the public. There is no greater authority to which they may appeal, who will explicate their “true” meaning.
WrittenCasey 
I love how far ranging your mind is. How many topics interest you.
As for your post, Casey, I’d call it astute. Made me wonder about scholars, though. While figuring out exactly what a thinker meant is important for so many purposes, it can crowd out other uses of a text too. For instance, as a springboard to other thoughts.
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I used to be a ‘scholar,’ ostensibly. Laugh. They make you specialize so much in college/university that i got a little hissy and ditched that path. Armchair thinking. Free range.
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Interesting. I had a friend who went to Michigan for grad school in Anthro. Dropped out for the same reason.
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Interesting indeed. I left the same field for the same reason. However, anthro gave me a solid background and ability to learn and consider things. It gave a strange self-referential way to think about existence without being completely confined to a culture/national basis. Invaluable.
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