You Can't Read What I Can Read
Why Books Mean Different Things to Different People
What does a story mean? Does it mean what the author says it means? Does it mean one thing to all, or many? In my view, it is clear that literature is something we interpret. We bring our own minds and memories to the table before the meal begins.
Does this mean that books can mean literally anything. I don’t think so. Some interpretations aren’t valid because they don’t seem to have any viable referents in the text: if I think Harry Potter is about the glory of war, then I'm wrong.
Nonetheless, variance in interpretation is inevitable, not only from reader to reader, but even for individual readers across time. Why is this?
Experiences
Our experiences shape how we explain the stimulus given to us by our reality. If I was surrounded by rude people growing up, I might see the customer as rude, where another person might see them as sarcastic. If I had a transformative experience in my youth, I might see my new job as divinely inspired, where another person might see it as sheer dumb luck.
Given that reality isn’t imposed upon us, but instead is in conversation with us, and that books themselves act like little realities, they too must hinge on our pasts. Nothing I read escapes what my past tells me about love, about truth, about beauty. And in that sense, I read myself as much as I read a book.
Knowledge
I remember when I was young I tried to read Plato’s Republic. I knew absolutely nothing about it other than it was written by a famous smarty pants. Additionally, I had basically no experience with academic philosophy. So at that time, the text gave me very little by way of specifics. Instead, it felt like a series of vague complaints, about justice, art, and the senses.
Later in my life I went back to university to study philosophy and ancient Greece. So when I read the Republic again, I had far more background knowledge of Plato himself and of philosophical concepts. Thus, the book read very differently.
Isn’t this the case for all books? It may not be so stark as a philosophical and historical text like Republic, but it’s still there. What we know about history, geography, human psychology, the author, and even ourselves can drastically alter our interpretations of texts. Books don't fill empty heads with knowledge, they top up an already deep well.
Intent
Sometimes I read to relax. Sometimes I read for entertainment. Sometimes I read with a pen in my hand ready to annotate. Sometimes I read on the bus without really reading anything, just so the weird dude who smells like boiled cabbages won't try to start a conversation with me.
These varied intentions won't change the content of the book. Republic will still be about justice. Harry Potter will still be about friendship. But our intentions will change how we pay attention to the text.
Reading Brave New World for entertainment and reading it for study are two very different things. In the first case, you may simply take in the remarkable premise and high emotionality of the text. In the second case, you may notice far more, the POV style, the references to famous historically important figures, the terrible similarities to our own time. In any case, the reason you want to read changes how you read, and all of us, at all times, have our own reasons for reading.
Emotion
Emotion is ever-present. It shapes how we perceive events in our daily lives. If I’m feeling jealous, I’m likely to interpret that jerk’s actions as nefarious. If I’m hopeful, I’m likely to interpret that rejection letter as an opportunity.
And in those moments, the emotion is so powerful, and so consuming, that we seldom realise its controlling how we see things.
It’s no different for books. Each of us has our own baseline emotional temperature in which we read. And from that baseline, each of us changes depending on the winds of fortune. As such, the villain is more hateable when I'm angry and more relatable when I'm calm. The hero is more frustrating when I’m anxious, and more inspiring when I’m joyous.
So, as with much of life, the flux of our emotions makes for flux in our perceptions. Emotion colours all.
Belief
We have all sorts of beliefs, about human nature, about morality, about ourselves, and about the fundamental nature of reality. Some of these are so inconsequential that they have no effect on literary interpretation. I believe berries are the best family of fruit (obviously true), but that doesn’t change how I read Shakespeare.
Others however, are deeply consequential. Take Macbeth, for example. If I believe in free will then I will see him as the clear villain of the story. Yes, he is told his actions are destined, but he is always in a position to choose otherwise, and doesn’t because he has deficient moral character. If I don’t believe in free will, then he is just another victim of the indifferent hand of fate.
Large or small, grandiose or quaint, our beliefs give a shapeless world shape. And as such, the worlds of fiction we encounter are likewise belief-determined.
Reflections
Learning isn’t about what you take in. It is about how you yourself process it. So try these reflection questions for yourself:
Do you contemplate your unique interpretations?
What might you have in common with other readers?
How might you be different to other reader?
How might thinking about this change your writing?
How does interpretation already affect your writing?
Would it better to deliberately alter your interpretations? If so, how?