David Hirsch, a prominent critic of post-structuralist influences on hermeneutics, censured Fish for " lapses in logical rigor " and " carelessness toward rhetorical precision . " In an examination of Fish's arguments, Hirsch attempts to demonstrate that " not only was a restoration of New Critical methods unnecessary, but that Fish himself had not managed to rid himself of the shackles of New Critical theory . " Hirsch compares Fish's work to Penelope's loom in the " Odyssey ", stating, " what one critic weaves by day, another unweaves by night . " " Nor, " he writes, " does this weaving and unweaving constitute a dialectic, since no forward movement takes place . " Ultimately, Hirsch sees Fish as left to " wander in his own Elysian fields, hopelessly alienated from art, from truth, and from humanity ."
