This was a long but interesting text. It described the way in which people interpret writing as it is read, the misunderstanding of that process, and what we know about it at this point. A lot of the text described a series of experiments performed on college students to understand the process of interpreting reading.
The text describes the modern phenomena were students are taught to interpret text based on what the got from it. College writing students are taught that a book can mean anything you want it to as long as you can show evidence. For his thesis paper a man once wrote that, in the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Huckleberry was in a homosexual relationship with Jim and this student got a college degree with it. As a writer it is my humblest opinion that this little philosophy is a lode of horse shit. If I write something, I have a very specific intentional meaning behind it. I don’t throw down words randomly for people to interpret however they want, I write intentionally. I have something very important to say and my writing is how I intend to say it to the world. If I write “As I looked through the glass of an enclosed sky walk over that so called perfect city I realized that utopia and paradise are two very different things.” (The First Law) Im trying to say that a utopia would not be as pleasant as people wish and therefore believe it would be. This passage could be seen though with some other meaning based on what people want it to mean but this won’t help any one or affect anything if everyone believes it means something different or something wrong. The writer tries to understand the processes of interpretation of reading which is good and necessary but the truth is that its much simpler than the author would suggest. People interpret text based on what they want it to mean and its as simple as that. We should learn how to teach people how to interpret the original meaning of the text as it was intended to be understood.
The author blames students lack of understanding text on their lack of knowledge on the subject, but being a student I can tell you that lack of knowledge is not typically the main cause of lack of understanding. I am not informed on most of the things I read but I still understand them. Most of the quotes and scenarios I use as examples in these thought pieces are not things I take any kind of time to research but simply things that I remember and pic up from various places and things. Almost every example I use is one millions of other people have heard. If people would learn to listen, pay attention, and care then they would be able to understand texts better. We should be working together and compiling ideas for our own benefit but we instead focus arrogantly on ourselves and our own ideas when our ideas (including mine) don’t matter until we make them matter by using them to improve things. Our teachers and parents teach us that we are special no matter what and we interpret that as meaning that everything we do is significant but the fact remains that the fact that some college kid thought that a 12year old Huck Finn was gay for a middle aged black man is obsolete no matter how much he thought his opinion mattered.
Reading is the best way to improve your thought,knowledge, and ideas, but its all for nothing if you just read what you want to hear. We should teach our students to try and improve them selves and not just be ok with mediocre. Many writers are experienced people with something to share with those who will listen but if we interpret it however we want we will miss out on the message. Im sorry I tore this lady apart (Im sure she’s very nice) she made a lot of good points but this was one I needed to critique.
skiderdun 