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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1212512" data-attributes="member: 812">I "now" seem to contend? I don't think my position has changed, but I apologize if I give that impression. My words don't always come out meaning what I think they do.I have no complaint with this idea. Indeed, this is pretty much exactly what I've been (apparently unsuccessfully) trying to say. Thanks for making it more clear.Multiple meanings? Try infinite meanings? Or do you think there is a limit to the number of meanings (I don't like the word but it seems to be what we're using) that readers can draw from a text? How do we tell when we're done?Of course we are never done. And so the task of the reader is not to determine the meaning or meanings of a work, for there are always more to be determined. I know I'm starting to sound terribly pendantic (sorry, I've just been reading Danse Macabre) but I do feel pretty strongly about all this.The task of a reader is to engage with the book, to use it like a sort of mental can-opener to tug away some rusted tin and have a look at what's been preserved inside. Sometimes we like to use the same can-opener and look in the same tins over and over again, and there's nothing wrong with that. But a truly great book is like an electric can-opener, with a feeding line and a whole pantry full of tins to yank open and show you, tins you never even knew were up on the shelf.That's when reading gets FUN.Meaning? I don't give a snot about meaning. Tell me what it shows you, tell me what it makes you see and think about. Don't tell me what the writer meant, or what the message is. That's a waste of space.</blockquote>

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