So, this first came to mind when I went to Barns and Noble. On the giant Twilight display, they ahd a book called "Twilight and Philosophy". Now, I understand finding many political and strange undertones in novels, but do you think people go a little too far with it. This is different than the authors who purposely put such things in their novels (Frankenstien, Narnia, Harry Potter); but I'm talking about professors/instructors finding something that wasn't purposely put in there by the author. Last year, I wrote a poem and read it out to the class. I will admit tht I put in small alliteration and one biblical metaphor, but my teacher said she found so much more, some things that I didn't even know existed. I kept my mouth shut about it, but I hate how we're told to find something that's not even purposely there.
Published written works are very subjective, because human beings differ. There are those things the author places purposely, there are those that add themselves in the interpretation phase. One part of a written work may be very special to you, but perhaps to me it isn't so. It happens.
I'm guilty of this. I've made up elaborate stories from songs that turned out to just be about the singer's car or something. Personally I find pleasure in it.
I do this to practically everything I listen to. I'll give the first verse of the official translation of God Knows as an example. Blazing on by There's nothing more that I can do I'm sorry that I'll never be with you again. Even though My heavy heart is parched with pain I know somehow Your sorrow's something I won't see It's my life I'm never gonna go back there again The future turned away Leaving me on the lonely rail That last two lines are what got me thinking. In Japan, and likely most of the world, most rooftops have safety rails on them to prevent people from falling off. Oftentimes in anime, a character alone and in front of that rail signifies suicide. So from there I thought, okay, the narrator is committing suicide. That motif of death made me think of the rest of the verse. There's nothing more that I can do I'm sorry that I'll never be with you again. Significant of the fact that the speaker's loved one has died or is dying? It's possible. Even though My heavy heart is parched with pain I know somehow Your sorrow's something I won't see So the person who'd dead or dying did something to hurt the speaker. Apparently the speaker also doesn't believe in an afterlife, because if she did, she'd probably be expecting an apology there, else she believes that he went to Hell and she won't see him to get the apology. It's my life I'm never gonna go back there again This might allude to the fact that she was pressured into something by her loved one who died. As you can see, I have a really messed up view on music. I can take practically anything and relate it to one of three motifs, all three of them being dark, sad, or perverted. Sometimes even all three.
What you say can be true in some cases but i think that its all about the fact that people have different interpretations. The only that would be able to understand something the way you do is someone that has a similar state of mind to you. Its just that simple, it isn't about reading too much into it, they read into it the same as anyone else except they can sometimes see something different. Thats not to say some people don't read to much into things because they do, me included.
I agree, my english teach is always saying that everything in the book was written for a reason and I think, surely the author couldn't have thought that much into it. We're studying Of Mice and Men at the moment and my teacher seems to know everything about it so will point out each little detail like how the character of Slim connects the things Lennie does and why George plays solitare all the time (playing on the idea of loneliness). Yes I understand the bigger things were put there for a reason but I don;t think smaller insignificant things had a purpose in the stories planning stages.
Literature is there to be analysed. Whether intentional, subconscious or nobe of the above, people love reading into things. That's how events can get out of hand, news stories expecially, people read too much about certain thing that people say, for example, saying 'being with her was a pleasurable experience'. A lot of people instantly think sexual stuff must of gone on, however it could just be an expressive way of saying you enjoyed that persons company and not that you want to sleep with them. When things are said or written, what we think will be viewed by others isn't necessarily what comes out. It's people who are to blame for all that stuff, and not the writer.
