Nov 10 2009
On Words & Meaning
How much meaning do we place into what another person says and does? I don’t really know, but I’m starting to think that the answer is something like “damn near all of it.”
A comment from my thoughtful friend Suzanne got me thinking about how much meaning I attribute to what others, especially my loved ones, say– meanings that are often not there. It’s a problem we all face, and me more than many, since I tend to read meanings into everything and think more than I speak. Still, it’s a problem that is easier to solve in speech, because there’s the opportunity for discourse, a back and forth that can be instant.
It’s a much different thing in writing. Prose, poetry, song. Literature. It’s written with purpose and intention, but it’s read and filled with meaning at some later date– maybe years or centuries– by a completely different person with a complete different history.
I thought someone else said this originally– actually, I’m quite sure that someone else said this, because I’m not so arrogant or stupid as to assume that anything I’d say is something that has never been said before. Still, I thought someone else said this… as in full-on-it’s-a-famous-saying said it. At least, I thought someone else said something like it. Something that was essentially the same thing. But I can’t find it, so now I’m not sure. Thus, I’ll say it here. Maybe someone will comment and write something like “It was Graham Greene, stupid!”
That wouldn’t surprise me, actually.
People call me stupid all the time.
Anyway, it’s a statement on literature– on words and meaning– and it’s one which I think is, if not wholly true, than at least a holder of a bag full of kernels. I’ll write it here as a short piece, so that I can at least take credit for this particular order of words.
Words & Meaning
Prose, poetry, song. Literature.
It is not written by the author, it is written by the reader. The best the author can ever do is to place words on a page in a given order.
And the very best authors are little more than people who are really good at lining up words in order.
Written words are just squiggly lines created by a bunch of ink dumped on a page. Without meaning, squiggly lines are just squiggly lines. And even after the squiggly lines are there, something like 90% of the page is still white. Authors talk about “filling the page,” but they don’t even do that better than 10% or so.
Sure, the author has an intended meaning when they put those words in that order, but that’s just one meaning. At best, they can choose the order of the words so that others might get a passing glimpse the meaning that the author thinks they mean when they line the words up that way.
It is readers who create literature.
It is the reader who truly writes the story because it is the reader who fills a story with meaning. The reader consumes those words and feels that order. The reader fills the other 90% of that page.
90% of that page is left blank by the writer, and it is the reader who fills it with their life, their past, their expectations. It is the reader who takes a particular order of words and gives it meaning.
A good writer is good at one thing, really: putting words in the order necessary for the reader to give the writing the meaning that the author intended it to have.
That’s it.
The best writers are able to use an order of words that completely remove our expectations in such a way that we have no idea what meaning we are supposed to give the words. Douglas Adams comes to mind, here.
I’ve spent my entire life writing, and I still think I do little more than put words in a certain order. There’s an art there, a beauty, of course. Putting words in a certain order is the same as putting notes in a certain order. The search for that perfect order is its own reward to me. Still, I’ve spent my life writing, and I don’t think I do much more than line up words.
It is the reader who looks at a particular order of words and decides to breathe a certain meaning into them. Whatever intention is in those words, the reader chooses to glean that intention. The reader has such incredible power in literature– they create the entire thing. They have a great deal of power. And thus, I don’t think we give enough appreciation to the incredible responsibility of the reader.
Of course, writers have responsibility. Putting words in a certain order can sometimes leave little doubt to meaning. “Black people are less evolved than White people,” for instance is an order of particular words that probably leaves little doubt to their intended meaning. The author of words such as those carries a great deal of responsibility.
Still, most word orders are not that blatant. Most word orders are subtle, and many word orders are simply waiting to be filled with meanings never intended. The meaning that every reader places on those words is the complete responsibility of the reader. Furthermore, any actions arising from those words are the readers responsibility as much as, if not more than, the author’s.
Readers have so much responsibility. They carry such an incredible weight with each word they read. It sometimes saddens me that we focus on the responsibility of the people who line up words in various orders while ignoring the responsibility of the people who give them meaning, and even action.
We are all readers. We all look at words in a certain order and give them meaning. We all fill the other 90% of the page with our expectations, and our pain, and our anger. We fill each page with our desire, and our fear, and our love.
We, the reader, fill that page with meaning.
So whenever you read something that makes happy, or melancholy, or sad; whenever you read something that make you think that someone is smart, or thoughtful, or stupid, or terrible; whenever you read something that makes you think that another person is wrong, hateful or mean, remember your responsibility.
Your incredible responsibility.
And ask the question:
“How much of myself am I using to fill the other 90% of this page.”
