Critic speak is tough, but we've got you covered.
Quote :From Text to Action: Essays in Hermeneutics, II
If it is true that there is always more than one way of construing a text, it is not true that all interpretations are equal and may be assimilated to so-called rules of thumb. The text is a limited field of possible constructions. The logic of validation allows us to move between the two limits of dogmatism and skepticism. It is always possible to argue for or against an interpretation, to confront interpretations, to arbitrate between them, and to seek for an agreement, even if this agreement remains beyond our reach….As the logic of text interpretation suggests, there is a specific plurivocity belonging to the meaning of human action. Human action, too, is a limited field of possible constructions.
First thing’s first. Is plurivocity a real word? It may not show up in your typical Merriam-Webster, but we can piece it together: plural + vocal must have something to do with speaking with multiple voices. Right? So that means human action has to come from multiple directions, whether vocalized or not.
Now let’s bring that into interpretation-land. Hermeneutics tends to go in for multiple valid readings of a text (sounds pretty plural to us), even when they conflict, but that doesn’t mean the text can mean anything you want it to mean or that every interpretation is equal to every other interpretation.
If you want to claim that Frodo and Sam are actually the same person and founder of Hobbiton Fight Club, go ahead, but you’d better have some textual support and a good argument to go with your great big imagination. And you’d best be prepared when the weight of Tolkien scholarship, not to mention basic reading comprehension, fall upon your shoulders.
Boxer hobbits aside, neither the psychic lives of the author and reader nor the traditions of the world to which each belong erase the fact that there is a meaningful text. When you interpret a text as a literary critic, you may consider the worlds to which you and it belong, but at the end of the day, it’s the text you’re seeking to interpret.
You and your friend might disagree about whether Willy Wonka is just a nice guy with a sweet tooth or a kind of creepy dude who shouldn’t be allowed around children—but you’ll each point to events in the book that buttress your interpretation. Ambiguity doesn’t mean that anything goes, no matter where your pure imagination takes you.