Life has no real meaning.

A little white Corvette, linguistics rock star Stanley Fish's vehicle of choice.

Stanley Fish once wrote: "[A]ny reading that is plain and obvious in the light of some assumed purpose (and it is impossible not to assume one) is a literal reading, but no reading is the literal reading in the sense that it is available apart from any purpose whatsoever. A sentence is never not in a context. We are never not in a situation... A set of interpretive assumptions is always in force. A sentence that seems to need no interpretation is already the product of one... A sentence neither means anything at all, nor does it always mean the same thing." 4 Critical Inquiry 625 (Summer 1978).

That said, my contract law textbook,* riddled with typos to begin with, irked me last night. In contract law, courts often look to whether there was a "meeting of the minds" between contracting parties in determining whether both parties entered into a contract with the same understanding of its terms. In an effort at clarification on this point, my book says, "[D]ifficulties will arise if the requirement of a 'meeting of the minds' is taken literally." I'll say.

*Fuller, Lon. L. and Eisenberg, Melvin A. Basic Contract Law, Seventh Edition. St. Paul: West Group. 2001.