I dare anyone to challenge me on this.
Cat in the Hat, Lord of the Flies, The Bible, ad infinitum.
Classic
It’s been a while since I’ve read this and I don’t have a copy nearby. I’m failing but also laughing at thinking about what the latent homosexuality is in the book. Can you refresh my memory?
I’ve never heard this before, but any lit can be interperted in any way. Which is what makes it interesting.
Thing one and thing two?
Ok, I pulled out my copy and let my dirty mind run free. Take all of these lines out of context.
“I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny, but we can have lots of good fun that is funny.”
“A lot of good tricks. I will show them to you. Your mother Will not mind at all if I do.”
“Look where it blew! You blew the mess out of the house thats true. But now you’ve made Snow Spots! You can’t let THEM stay!”
“But I like to eat cake in a tub, you should try it some time,”
Well, have you ever heard of a Byronic hero?
Kind of a sigma male, follows their own rules, normally a victim or perpetrator of abuse. So… the cat shows up at the house with kids when the parents are gone.
Green Eggs and Ham is worse.
“It is fun to have fun, but you have to know how.”
Yes and no. One can read something through any lens or perspective and form an opinion. However, that doesn’t mean the author intended that. So you could have a Christian interpretation of Homer, meaning it’s how a Christian judges the actions of the characters for example, however, if you then say that Homer is making a commentary on Christianity then you would be wrong.
This is a problem in education today with the whole my truth mentality. There is a difference between what an author or character is saying and what you think he is saying. The point of reading literature is to learn how other people perceive the world. A big thing with literature in schools these days is choosing material where kids “see themselves.” It’s another example of woke stupidity. You don’t read something to see yourself, you have a brain and a mirror for that; you read something to see other people and how those people see themselves. With that being said, the deeper you dig, the closer you will get to seeing something that resembles how you think or feel. You want to find out what you have in common with people who are different, not see people who are just like you; you have your own life for that.
1 Like
For the sake of conversation I disagree. While I can understand reading about another culture or point of view for objective educational purposes, I don’t think you have to read a story and attempt to be in an authors lane.
I may have a different perspective as I see knowledge as a useful thing, do not spend much time on fiction just for the sake of a story, and will apply new views and knowledge learned as it suits me or my situation… or discard if it doesn’t.
I’m not interested in finding out how some other dude interprets things, but will skim knowledge he may have picked up that I have not and apply it for myself.
I’m also probably not interpreting “my truth” accurately if it’s a thing kids say these days, but I read it as “principle” and believe we need more of it in this context, even if one persons principles may disagree with the next. Learn yourself and own yourself imo.
True. And thats something I enjoy about literature.
Also agree. If someone finds something that resonates, that’s great, even if wasnt the original intention.
There is no disagreement because I am correct. No one who read Homer since the time it was written, saw themselves. The ancient Greeks who read it didn’t believe they were Achilles or Zeus (maybe Alexander the Great did). Yet, Homer has been read for centuries by people who did not see themselves in the poems. It’s no different than comic books; do the kids who read them believe they are mutant superheroes? Harry Potter? Do we live in a world with magic and the kids who read those books believe they are four eyed sorcerers?
But, in the journey of learning about these different characters, as human beings, that we begin to see ourselves within the human condition. I’m not Ahab. I’m not a ship’s captain and have never hunted whales. But, what is my wooden leg? What is my white whale? Does Ahab need to be a transgender teen in order for someone to ask himself these questions?
Lol
And then…
You are putting yourself in the story and framing it around your perspective……
Disagree again
You have intent, context and perception/interpretation. An intelligent person recognizes that all of that matters. What you have from the woke is only perception matters. Perception = truth. This is the vanity and hubris of the times we live in at work. If you claim your perception is the truth; my truth = the truth, then you are claiming a power over reality. You are like God. Great literature reminds us of our limits to know and understand the world.
It’s the perspective of someone else. The point is that other people don’t exist in your frame. They have their own story that isn’t subservient to you.
That doesn’t make you right. I don’t play the my truth game.
Yes you do, all the time
You missed me? Sorry, but I don’t look like a goat.
But do you want to be the G.O.A.T?
I wanted to be with regard to being an asshole but then I moved to New Jersey for a few years and realized it would never happen.
I am so sorry.