Interpretations, evaluations, and bias
Too many questions involving who's right and who's wrong. There are more interesting questions to ask. Reading slowly often helps in mitigating some of the bias' involved. At least slow enough to see the presence of its ever present sense lurking in the shadows.
Is there a conflict between a books explicit meaning verses any unacknowledged implications or sub-texts a piece may contain?
What assumptions might lie behind any interpretation?
How can an artful reader bring their own bias' and assumptions out into the open?
What kind of reader do you want to be?
Often, when searching for interpretations, one stumbles upon facts that can change the whole outlook of an evaluation or analysis. What do you do with a new fact when it goes against a bigger group of facts already stating an explanation? Do you let your bias' get in the way and throw it in the garbage heap? Do you try to burn a truth out of existence before anyone else can see it?
Interpretation is defined as an explanation. The meaning must not be specifically obvious. It involves unlocking a secret or solving a mystery. Interpretation also involves discovering the subtext in the descriptions. Do you sense a character keeping something from the reader? Do you as the reader find the places that are revealing in the subtext?
Interpretation is designed to take an artful reader past what is obvious and should not be surprised when different interpretations come into conflict. For an Artful Reader disagreement is not a sign to indicate something may be wrong. It is an indication that you may be actually getting somewhere.
That means taking time for a little self discovery.
Are you the main character of the story of your life?
How many diapers have you changed?
What if all the cognitive bias' are like a novel going on in your head?
I suppose a famous novelist could have something great to say about the question at hand. I'd love to hear any of them.
Maybe it's something like creating characters to fit certain personas to carry on specific story lines in ones life: One for work, one for play, one for when you think no one is looking. As long as you manage to not lie to yourself (even with the characterizations) a certain sense of balance can be achieved.
Doing your own biography and dividing it up into different phases of your life helps to slow down emotional outbursts. Knowing your own triggers and their histories and creating characters for them shapes a new form of understanding within the self. Answering truthfully to yourself why others seemed to get in the way of an instant satisfaction or a personal agenda. The stages, the ups and downs, and everything sideways and in between that comes with being too selfish.
I think understanding your own personal history helps to listen to another's POV with a more patient bearing. Contingent upon being totally honest with yourself....at least. Very hard thing to do in this world filled with chains of desires and addictions to numerous to count. Never lie to yourself.
Honesty with others? That depends on so many factors working together. Tricky Dicky, Murphy and his cohorts, and Finnegans wake always get in the way. How many times does a person screw themselves in life by hurting another?
I guess learning to be a narrator in the story of your life helps bring a balance to things. After all, it is just A story. One of many. Is it a good one? Is the hidden diary of your heart honest? Or is just told with fancy jargon and bloated juxtaposition bringing the victor (yourself) all the spoils of triumph without paying a price. Sanitizing the tale for future generations to follow and possibly emulate. What lies we tell ourselves to make it all better.
How many monuments to the self in history have been erected?
How many of them do we look up to still or even remember?
How many are we going to tear down?
What about our own personal monuments to ourselves?
They offer an array of satire to describe all sorts of ludicrous nonsense from politics to the small things in everyday life. Including everybody involved in our own little worlds. Don't forget about the giant individuals of influence who affect all our everyday lives. Their ssspheres of influence are large. Still, many more are beginning to pay attention to the larger worlds around them. Especially through the internet. The influences that control our lives. Layer by layer. The little ones, the big ones. Right on up to the top of the pyramid....grouped in categories to better serve you.
Dante's Divine Internet: Enter if you dare...
