#on interpretation

[a-hoe-for-dark-academia]

“Now that which is must needs be when it is, and that which is not must needs not be when it is not.”

-Aristotle, probably high or something.

[feignedremote]

Like Jacob who wrestled a mysterious being all night long, the translator struggles silently with the author until he blesses him or lets him go. Like Jacob, he wants to know his opponent, to see him face to face, is haunted physically and spiritually by the author's face, his name, his strength, his style.

Ilinca Zarifopol-Johnston, introduction to On the Heights of Despair by Emil Cioran

[not-voltaire]

The old style of interpretation was insistent, but respectful; it erected another meaning on top of the literal one. The modern style of interpretation excavates, and as it excavates, destroys; it digs "behind" the text, to find a sub-text which is the true one.

Susan Sontag, Against interpretation and other essays.

[lemonysnidget]

The creator’s intent is all well and good, but if the creator failed to manifest what they envisioned, it’s not unreasonable to disregard what the creator says they were trying to do. 

Creative intent is important, yes, and it can inform interpretation, but what the audience actually sees/reads/hears/etc is vital to interpretation too. In fact, most literary analysis is based on the fact that we don’t have interviews with the author explaining what they were trying to do. 

[stargir1z]

you think you want media literacy… do you? by danah boyd

[feignedremote]

I say something, he said, I thought, and I’m saying something completely different, thus I’ve spent my entire life in misunderstandings, in nothing but misunderstandings, he said, I thought. We are, to put it precisely, born into misunderstanding and never escape this condition of misunderstanding as long as we live, we can squirm and twist as much as we like, it doesn’t help. But everyone can see this, he said, I thought, for everyone says something repeatedly and is misunderstood, this is the only point where everybody understands everybody else, he said, I thought.

Thomas Bernhard, The Loser, trans. Jack Dawson

[gorgonapologist]

charlotte currie