"Hermeneutics"

       In my June 3 post titled "An erotics of art," I used the word "hermeneutics" and, I suppose, figured the context would imply its most common synonym:  "interpretation."  But it struck me in re-reading the post that "hermeneutics" is so little used in everyday conversation, a "word" is in order.

       Where it is commonly used gives a clue to its meaning:  in biblical study, reading-explaining-understanding-translating-interpereting ancient religious texts; this kind of study is called "hermeneutics."

        The way I always remember it is the place the word comes from.  It's Greek, and it's derived from the god Hermes.  And who was Hermes?  He was the messenger god, the guy depicted with fleet wings on his heels to help get him from here to there as fast as possible.

        "Hermeneutics" in general is the study of getting the "message" from one place to another, "reading-explaining-understanding-translating-interpreting texts," literary, Biblical, or otherwise, and is aptly applied by Susan Sontag to a similar process regarding the assimilation, explication--the interpretaion--of art in general.