All the World's a Text
By Summer Block

All the world's a text,
And all the men and women merely readers:
They have their theories and their allegiances;
And one man in his time finds many schools,
His acts being seven stages. At first the freshman,
Highlighting Being and Time in the student lounge.
And then the stubborn sophomore, an English major,
Counting unstressed syllables, or suffering
A close reading of Boswell. And then the junior
Meets structure, all incest and mascots, and the
Gory opening of Discipline and Punish. Next semester it's
Historicists, a dozen pages on
Medieval grain taxes and he soon comes to see
Agrarian uprisings
Are worse than finding dactyls. And then the senior,
Worries over "Structure, Sign, and Play" and delights in
Toppling binaries, writes tortured sentences,
Tries again to finish Being and Time,
And promises himself to read Lacan. The sixth age finds
Post-modern pleasure in the knowing wink,
Delighted that the world's an unread text;
Deconstructing "Star Search" is more fun than Boswell.
He does his final thesis on frisson in the "Golden Girls"
And receives approving comments. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
He switches to Poly-Sci in time to graduate,
Sans sign, sans différance, sans dactyl, sans everything.

——

Summer Block is perfectly interested in medieval grain taxes.

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