I left a comment (there were 5 comments already when I gave mine), but I guess they didn't want to publish it. Not sure why. (Update 11/29: There was no deliberate slight; the comment seems to have just vanished, which, I'm finding out, happens more often than one would wish.) Here's what I said:
This is a fascinating discussion. May I put in my two cents?So what's your opinion? Do you like it when authors explain their work (I'm talking novels here) or not?
As a reader, I don't want an author (or anyone, for that matter) telling me what I should have understood from their book. That's not to say I don't enjoy hearing other peoples take on the same book; to the contrary, I love it. But understanding is as understanding does, so to speak.
I argued this very point with my literature professors time and time again in college (all those eons ago.) I remember having to write a paper on a Thomas Hardy book, regarding my interpretation of a certain scene. When I got the paper back, the professor had marked it all up with "NO!! It didn't mean that at all, it meant THIS!" And he proceeded to tell me where I had completely missed the boat. But to me, I hadn't. I understood it in a certain way. He understood it in another way. He insisted that his way of understanding it was the way Hardy meant it to be understood. I argued that if Hardy had meant it to be understood a certain way, he wouldn't have made it so ambiguous to begin with.
I get the need to be understood. It's human nature to want that. But I think that whatever your intentions were when you wrote the book, ultimately don't matter. We all bring our own life experience to the table of reading; you as the writer, me as the reader. Once the book leaves your hands and goes out into the world, it becomes whatever the reader needs/understands/wants it to be.
I think when people say, "Oh I get it," they are speaking through the lens of their own life experiences, sometimes forgetting, as my English professor did, that books are written to be interpreted by the reader. And everyone will get something different out of the book, to varying degrees. Otherwise, what would be the point? Reading would cease to be a personal experience, which, to my mind, would kill the desire to read dead.
9 comments:
Hi Megan
Just to say I'm so glad you found my post on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure interesting - and I'm so sorry that your comment wasn't picked up. I've no idea why that was.
With my reader's hat on now, I agree with you absolutely - I hate to be told, by an author or anyone else, what 'the' interpretation of a book should be. The best writing (including Thomas Hardy's) always contains a degree of ambiguity or 'vagueness' - a whole range of possible interpretations, just like any work of art. The reader's contribution is crucial. Reading is anything but passive.
I think this can be true for children's books as well. My 'Coping with Chloe' was meant to have an open interpretation, and I hope it does.
I agree with you. People take what they need to out of books. I don't care one way or the other what the author says there book meant. I think it's interesting to hear it but I still take what I got out of it the most seriously.
Yes, yes, I totally agree with you. Even the other day we were listening to Ally Condie, I think it was, and someone asked her what she wanted us to get out of her books...and she basically refused to answer. It was awesome. :)
Rosalie, thanks so much for stopping by and commenting so thoughtfully here. I really liked your well-written post and the comments that ensued.
I don't think kids (younger kids, anyway) ever think about the author's reasoning behind certain aspects of their books. At least I didn't. And I don't see my daughters doing that. They read more emotively, and question the character's reactions rather than author's meaning.
(No worries about my comment; cyber glitches happen. It was the first time I'd commented on the blog and when I didn't see it post, I thought perhaps it must be a place for writers only. And it being your blog, of course you have the right to not publish comments as you see fit. Cheers.)
Jenny - yes. I'm wondering if readers in general do feel this way. I think probably yes.
Suey, good for her! I don't know about anyone else, but I don't read novels to "get" anything out of them, necessarily. Maybe I'm too simple minded, but I don't go into a novel looking for hidden messages. I read a novel to enjoy a good read. If a "message" pops into my mind while reading, great.
Hi Megan
Thanks - and please do feel free to post on the ABBA blog - it's for everyone! I will report the glitch and try to make sure it doesn't happen again. Please stay with our blog - it's meant to be a friendly and welcoming place and it's certainly not just for writers :)
This question can up when my daughter was in high school. There, she was taught and encouraged to interpret books in her own way. In college, some professors also thought this way, others didn't. When she and I talked about it, I felt that there is the accepted interpretation of a book, and then there is your own, and it helps to know both, but as a reader you don't have to abide by the accepted interpretation.
BTW, I have also left comments on discussions like the one at An Awfully Big Blog Adventure that never got posted. I decided it was their problem/loss, not mine.
Rosalie - I will, thanks. I enjoy the blog and the thoughtful posts written.
My sister tells me that I failed to publish a comment of hers, but I never saw it; it never showed up. It makes me wonder if the same thing has happened to other people trying to comment on my blog. Hmmm...
Alex - for that particular professor, I had to write all my papers with that approach: the "accepted" interpretation and mine, if it was different than the accepted one. It made the papers longer and the prof happy. :)
I have generally found authors' comments on their own books disappointing. Creation and interpretation are such different enterprises, and few people are particularly good at both; in my experience, contemporary authors are often not especially interesting interpreters of their own work. I would imagine that successful creative writing would almost require silencing one's interpretive impulses...
As I literature professor, all I can say is that some interpretations proposed by students really are simply wrong -- unfounded, unsupported by evidence, inconsistent with other elements of a book. Not that I am you were wrong about Hardy, necessarily! One of the hazards of the job is not only the difficulty of differentiating "wrong" from "different from mine," but also that the more you teach a book, the more strongly wedded to your interpretation you become.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I can see your point about students. It must get maddening to deal with. Which could probably contribute to becoming entrenched in one's point of view.
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