#belief as you are in yours. it’s an unstoppable force meets immovable object situation

[drunk-poets-society]

Kinda blows my mind sometimes when people don’t understand that there really is no wrong way to analyse media.

Everyone looks at things differently, and any personal interpretations are heavily influenced by the self, and one’s own life experiences that have shaped them.

No two people deal with problems the same way. Although a basic understanding of what the author was trying to convey is important, in media of an ambiguous nature it is up for interpretation because such is the nature of ambiguity.

Of course, reading comprehension and background knowledge is very important in literary analyses, which is why media analyses are grouped into distinct sections, that is; a completely neutral perspective, in which one draws the analysis around the stencils of societal values, which may not always be morally correct, but is completely detached from humanity, I.e., existing solely as a concept which is to be applied, much like concepts of mathematics.

And then there’s the reader’s own interpretation which is heavily biased and influenced by personal experiences. Whence one draws parallels with one’s life, and other forms of media consumed, concepts of personal favour, etc.

in this section of literary analysis, there is no wrong interpretation as it draws from personal interests. This is also, the kind of analysis we see most on the internet, or just discussing media with people in real life. It’s tainted heavily with personal biases, which are sometimes believed to be factual by people, sometimes almost to the point of genuine hatred of others that do not agree with them.

Thus we see the phenomena of name-calling and other things. The belief that one’s personal interpretation is the only correct one, and the rest of them are all wrong.

Sometimes the inability to acknowledge the fact that everyone is different, and will thus have different interpretations of media, leads to immense psychological distress, which can simply be avoided by not engaging in debates in an uncivil manner.

That’s why I don’t try to change people’s minds about my favourite pieces of media, my interpretation is my own, and though it might overlap and share many of its points with others, they relate to me in a different way. The nature of humanity is such that each experience is so alarmingly universal yet so painfully unique.