I'd love to hear what a high school English teacher thinks is going on in Known Order Girls. Funnily enough, I subbed for an English teacher once at my son's former high school, and one student was reading The Old Man and the Sea and I gave him that quote from Hemingway and he said, "Somehow I don't think Mrs. [Redacted] is going to let me get away with handing that in as my essay."
Oh, yeah, I have definitely wondered how people interpret some of my novels. Especially ones where the ending is kind of ambiguous, like Sephirot and Kill Switch. I definitely don’t give you easy answers in those.
I’ve always felt like the most interesting part of art is the space between what the creator intended and what the audience discovers. Sometimes readers find things I never consciously put there… and sometimes they’re absolutely right anyway.
Meaning is a complex concept. There can be implied meaning but personal meaning requires the reader/listener to engage with some part of their experience. It is not passive. My greatest concern is that passivity has become the norm. Just keep feeding entertainment down the feeding shute... and the consumer will consume. But that isn't how works of literature work. I dont think that is how music works. It goes beyond entertainment. Much like art, the more you know, the more that becomes knowable. You can look at a Baroque painting and think it is all fru-fru... and then as you learn more about the time, and the artist, and the events occurring... it becomes a much more engaging painting. I think literature falls into the same category. It exists on its own, for sure... but it also exists at a place in time, by an author experiencing their particular life. Nothing says that we are all sharing the same experience. Some stuff just sails right on by. But the things that resonate, echo inside us because of us, as much as because of the writing/music/art. We have to be able to receive the work. Just my two cents.
Mmmm. Thank you for this, this morning! I'm pondering what to do about the person who tore down my pride flag on Friday night. Your piece reminded me that my flag has triggered something in their own story, and has nothing, or little, to do with me. That said, I'm off to cover it in glitter and maybe blackberry thorns before I pop it back up again!
We bring all of our experiences to the table when we read, listen, look at, or watch someone else’s interpretation of the world around them. I always get slightly annoyed when I hear someone say they “didn’t like” a book or movie or piece of music because they often can’t explicitly tell you why. Then I think about all the judgements I make every day and give them a pass. And, btw, I love music by both Stravinsky and Mozart.
I'd love to hear what a high school English teacher thinks is going on in Known Order Girls. Funnily enough, I subbed for an English teacher once at my son's former high school, and one student was reading The Old Man and the Sea and I gave him that quote from Hemingway and he said, "Somehow I don't think Mrs. [Redacted] is going to let me get away with handing that in as my essay."
Oh, yeah, I have definitely wondered how people interpret some of my novels. Especially ones where the ending is kind of ambiguous, like Sephirot and Kill Switch. I definitely don’t give you easy answers in those.
This really resonated with me.
I’ve always felt like the most interesting part of art is the space between what the creator intended and what the audience discovers. Sometimes readers find things I never consciously put there… and sometimes they’re absolutely right anyway.
That’s part of the magic.
Meaning is a complex concept. There can be implied meaning but personal meaning requires the reader/listener to engage with some part of their experience. It is not passive. My greatest concern is that passivity has become the norm. Just keep feeding entertainment down the feeding shute... and the consumer will consume. But that isn't how works of literature work. I dont think that is how music works. It goes beyond entertainment. Much like art, the more you know, the more that becomes knowable. You can look at a Baroque painting and think it is all fru-fru... and then as you learn more about the time, and the artist, and the events occurring... it becomes a much more engaging painting. I think literature falls into the same category. It exists on its own, for sure... but it also exists at a place in time, by an author experiencing their particular life. Nothing says that we are all sharing the same experience. Some stuff just sails right on by. But the things that resonate, echo inside us because of us, as much as because of the writing/music/art. We have to be able to receive the work. Just my two cents.
Mmmm. Thank you for this, this morning! I'm pondering what to do about the person who tore down my pride flag on Friday night. Your piece reminded me that my flag has triggered something in their own story, and has nothing, or little, to do with me. That said, I'm off to cover it in glitter and maybe blackberry thorns before I pop it back up again!
We bring all of our experiences to the table when we read, listen, look at, or watch someone else’s interpretation of the world around them. I always get slightly annoyed when I hear someone say they “didn’t like” a book or movie or piece of music because they often can’t explicitly tell you why. Then I think about all the judgements I make every day and give them a pass. And, btw, I love music by both Stravinsky and Mozart.