Complexity in the Simple

     In Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster writes, “Every reader’s experience of every work is unique.”  In order to create an experience for the reader with this degree of complexity, the author must attempt to be as simple as possible with phrasing and construction.  In other words, creating an intricate and complicated piece requires a degree of ambiguity, or inexactness in language.  With this ambiguity, readers are allowed to take certain elements of literature and perceive them in entirely different ways based on their own experiences and beliefs. 

     This ambiguity leaves some aspects of the piece up to the interpretation of each individual reader, allowing them to have wildly varied understandings of the same text.  According to Foster, numerous personal characteristics can affect the way a piece is received by the reader.  These include personal history, previous readings, “educational attainment, gender, race, class, faith, social involvement, and philosophical inclination.” No two people share all of these characteristics, thus, no two people can share the exact same understanding of a text either.

     With this said, this added element of uncertainty and simplicity demands much greater attention and thought from the reader.  A reader must first process the superficial elements of the writing; that is, what the author appears to be saying.  The reader must then dissect the true underlying meaning of the superficial writing.  They must, however, be careful so as not to read too far into the meaning of a passage.  Foster recounts Sigmund Freud’s famous quote, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”  Even with this word of caution, all can appreciate the incredible dynamic that ambiguity can add to the relationship between the author, the text, and the audience.