Re: Franny sectioned

AntiUtopia@aol.com
Sun, 01 Aug 1999 21:58:05 -0400 (EDT) 

In a message dated 8/1/99 9:15:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
c_scaysbrook@yahoo.com writes:

<< > I guess it depends. I find myself increasingly putting works out there
 that
 > even I am not confident of the `real' meaning of and simply seeing what
 > people make of them; whether my route from A to B is similar to theirs.
 > Sometimes it is, sometimes people very much `get it' (where that simply
 > means their opinion matches mine), other times, not at all. I'm perfectly
 > happy with either outcome, but it would discount the idea that, by
 default,
 > a writer is seeking to convey his or her ideas in a manner that would
 make
 > as certain as possible that readers were on the same track. So what I'm
 > saying is that I almost put my texts out there to be deliberately
 > `misinterpreted'. Which really renders the whole concept of
 > misinterpretation irrelevant.
 >  >>

I think we're actually pretty close on this one, Camille.  When I said that 
the author was the "best informed" reader, I meant so far as knowing 
accurately "what was really written in the book."  Not necessarily as far as 
interpretation goes, although that is indeed the first step.  Course, I 
didn't qualify that in my post, so if that wasn't clear it was my fault 
alone.  

I mean, when I write something, I reread it, reread it, reread it, and reread 
it.  I read ANYTHING I've written (posts to listserves excepted :) ), more 
times than anything I write about.  That doesn't automatically make my 
interpretation of my own work the best, but just that I am probably more 
familiar with the actual words on the page than anyone who has read any of my 
stuff.  That's all.

Yeah, we can speculate about whether or not there was a real person behind 
Esme, and it does no harm, but man is it a waste of time :)  Not that wasting 
time is a bad thing. . .I think I probably need to learn how to do that 
better :) (what did I just say?)  I mean, if a person comes up front and 
says, "Hey, I'm doing this for fun, let's play with it," that's one thing.  
But when people do that stuff to be taken seriously...what a bother :)

When I write something autobiographical, you know what that's like?  It's 
like tracing a painting with a pencil on a sheet of paper.  You don't use all 
the lines, just some, fill in some new ones, then when you color it in you 
use completely different colors.  So when you compare the two works, they're 
completely different, even though one was initially based upon the other.

Jim