Do we reach the same interpretation ?

[Comic_book_guy]

Hello Everyone :)

After I posted my very first thread, I received great answers that made me ask this question:

If we interpret movies, TV series, novels, short stories, plays, comics, manga,

anime, story in a video game, signs, and symbols, do we reach the same

interpretation or does each one of us reaches his or her own interpretation that is

different from the others’ interpretation ?

[Pompey Bum]

Hey CBG! As I said before, each reader's experience is necessarily unique (I can't advise you on the other media you mention):


For me, there is a unique relationship between writer and reader. The writer creates something, and the reader brings to life through the voice and vision in his or her own head. That experience is unique to the reader, but it cannot be said to be (only) the reader's interpretation since individual readers are reacting to the same original creation. So Shelley's Ozymandias may strike you as a blow at the arrogantly powerful or me as an assertion of the futility of works theologies or someone else as a lament at the pointlessness of doing anything; but it is NOT about how all things come to those who wait, or how only the strong survive, or how cool the ancient Egyptians were. Everyone who is paying attention (and not just reading Wikipedia) will have an interpretation, but that doesn't make it a free-for-all.

Since the relationship depends on a shared literary work, experiences between readers may be similar, but given the uniqueness of each human mind, they will never be identical. Orthodoxies must be imposed from the outside.