Originally posted by LimeLite
This just reminded me of how, in high school, I used to hate when teachers gathered all this symbolism from books and talked about how "when the author said this, he was trying to portray the blah blah blah..." I was always like, HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW? I mean, maybe when the author wrote something, he just meant what he wrote. I doubt that every author ever took hours on each sentence making sure it had some special meaning. It just always frustrated me, cause I know how pissed off I'd be if I was a writer and went to a class where a teacher was teaching my book and started telling the students something that I wasn't trying to say at all.
I asked that in Highschool once, prarticulary when we we're discussing shakespeare - the response was
"i wouldn't be suprised if there is no simbolism in Hamlet, but if that was really true i would be out of a job"
However, writing is an artform in itself. Although some art is created for sole aesthetic appeal, most artists when creating work, do have a symbolic meaning in mind, usuall social commentary. This holds true for most writers aswell. Just as the painter won't tell you what he's commenting on in his painting, a writer won't come out and plainly say what his book is commenting on. It is up to the reader to interpret the message.
Although i agree with you about the writer not thinking about every line and english teacher saying that it's agreed upon was very close minded. It is about personal interpretation, and if you didn't get anything from the book, then the writer failed as conveying his message to everyone.
But it is close minded to say that there is no message at all, even if you yourself don't see it. Good writing, is all about these hidden messages. This is even true in film and script work, listen to Sodenberg, Burten, Copella, or Spealberg talk about their work and the script in interviews... they always talk about "this representing that, and that being a commentery on this".
And although i personally feel that the whole Tenth Ammendment idea is a little far fetched. I still applaud ibilly for coming up wth something. Personally i could see at as being X marks the spot of a great treasure, and a big treasure means power, And thats what you get with OS X - great power.
