Don't kill me Mr. Rich

DISCLAIMER: The Author cannot be held responsible for the opinions contained within this entry, but merely the general existence thereof, thus, hypothetically, were it to be given point based grade, the author's views would be considered no grounds for bias against, and subsequent lowering of, the aforementioned hypothetical grade.

So I have this class, we'll call it english, and for this class, we are constantly analyzing literary works in order to find the deeper meanings therein. This is perfectly fine, to a point. Many works do contain a deeper meaning, cleverly designed to get a message across to the reader, however, many and all are two very different things. Many would seem to connotate a large number, or portion of a whole, generally, somewhere beteen 50 and 99 percent. All, though, has no connotation as such, but an exact definition, meaning, all of them, the entirety of a whole, 100 percent, precisely. I point this out to say that sometimes a literary work just might mean (gasp) exactly what it says.

Why do we feel this need to analyze things? The same reason I'm doing it right now, because the need is imposed upon us by english teachers, who were imposed upon to impose upon us this need, etcetera, etcetera, all the way back to when literature was first appraised as analyzable, and who knows who's idea that was. This is not always true, some people really like analyzing things, I mean, I don't mind when it's only in my head, but why take it outside of that boundary? Do we really need to write down all of our thoughts about other people's thoughts? it just doesn't seem quite right does it?

Well, I decided that the reasons all boil down to analysis being ultimately for the betterment of our thinking society. When one person expresses their thoughts about someone else's thoughts, then another person can read those thoughts, and express their own thoughts about the first persons thoughts about someone elses thoughts, and so on and so forth, until, eventually, we get down to the true meaning of a poes, which, of course, the author never intended in the first place.

The people- "Well, we've finally figured out what your poem was about."
Author- "oh?"
The people- "yes. it's about the inner struggle between human nature and the will to do that which they believe is right, when confronted with pressures and temptations, and other large mammals"
Author- "um, actually it was about the small bits of broccoli that were in my butter while I was trying to butter my toast that morning, you know, like the poem said"
The people- "no, you're wrong, that's what you said, but it was too simple to be what you meant."
Author- "hm, I hadn't thought of that"