A literary critic of the reader response school, and one of the few wealthy english professors of the world. He proposes that the text of a work has little or no effect on the way the work is interpretted because the author of the work cannot predict how his words will effect the reader. Readers belong to an interpretive community which is a constantly shifting set of values and mental associations which defines how its members will interpret works read. No community is constant, and it is the rise and fall of various communities that causes statements like "nobody reads that anymore." This theory is itself the product of the interpretive community to which Fish belongs and is no more true than any other: indeed, there is no truth that pre-exists interpretation. A theory of which explanantion is a violation.