Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33869
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33869
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

No matter how hard you try to make sure that there is only one possible interpretation of your story, people will interpret it in different ways according to their experience, ideology, and circumstances. You don't need to plan for multiple interpretations; you are going to get them whether you like it or not.

A story is an experience. When different human beings have the same experience, they often interpret that experience differently. We can walk down the same street together and notice different people, buildings, plants, animals, etc. The fact that different people interpret a story in different ways, that they see different things and react to them differently as they travel through the story, is actually evidence that you have created a vivid and captivating experience.

People will, to one extent or another, take every experience, including literary ones, and try to use them as reasons to argue a political point. As an author, you may be intending for them to do this, and trying to direct them to a political opinion closer to your own, or you may be attempting to be strictly an artist and to depict life as you see it without a political agenda. Either way, some portion of your readership will disappoint you by extracting a policy statement from your work that you did not intend and perhaps find abhorrent. Welcome to art.

Original score: 9