#reader interpretation

[sofasoap]

Yankee 7 and his Lastochka - by @wombywoo

My original character, Freya ' Mini ' MacTavish and Nikolai from Call of Duty.

Thank you again for the lovely art! I am amazed again and again by your excellent skill and Oh.. words can't express how much I love it 🥺🥺

[a-small-writer-in-a-big-world]

Ello!! Hope you’re having a great day!

I wanted to draw out the written piece you did for when Simon heard Quiet laugh for the first time!!💫💫💫

Thank you!

@thedevillovesflowers WGEGAUABUABAIABAISNAIAN

MY HEART ❤️❤️

It’s so beautiful drawn, it’s so tender and soft and loving, the way he looks at Quiet when she laughs I’m in tears I am in heaven this is everything it’s perfections I love it

[natureboy96]

SJM, ACOTAR, Authorial Intent and what's "fair" to criticize/validate

So, the title of this post is, while accurate, a bit vague. I decided to put my two cents out on this because, since I joined the ACOTAR fandom a few months ago, I've found a lot of very harsh words being flung one way or another, largely based around the characters of the book or the direction people believe SJM has taken/will take the narrative. There's also been a lot of rather nasty attacks on people for their takes, their ships, and their criticism. I'm not an expert on writing, but I thought it worth having a proper, fleshed out discussion on these topics.

Author's Intent vs Reader's Interpretation

When it comes to understanding a text and gaining meaning from it, Author's Intent and Reader's Interpretation are generally the two fields which are subscribed to. Authorial Intent argues that the meaning of a text should be derived by what the author wanted the reader to take from it, and that a text is inherently connected to the intent of the author; for example, because SJM doesn't put as much emphasis on certain side characters, the reader shouldn't consider them important. Or, that SJM and the narrative intend and clearly state that the IC and Rhysand are the good guys, it only makes sense to view them as such. Reader's Interpretation posits that texts are meant to be interacted with, and that the meaning people can derive from them is subjective, because individuals have different life experiences and perspectives which can lead them to understand a text in different ways; A reader can see Rhysand's actions as hypocritical based on their interpretations of what he did and how in ACOSF. Or, coming at the text with a different understanding on trauma or sexuality, a reader can come away from a text finding Tamlin to be a more sympathetic character than hateful one. Both of these arguments have existed for decades, if not longer. And the thing is...

Neither of these are wrong or right ways to read a text

There is no "one right way" to engage with or criticize a text! If you believe that SJM is a bad writer because she uses characters as plot points rather than giving them actual growth/retcons things as needed for her narrative, or that Tam’s actions have earned him his redemption, that is a valid assessment based on what you read in a text. If you think Lucien and Elain have no chance because Elain has on multiple times been shown being friendly, even intimate (not romantic intimate, just close) with Azriel and that the author seems to hint towards a rejected mating bond, that is a valid assessment too. Anything in a text, written, implied or intended, is a valid avenue of criticism.

At the same time, people are fully allowed to have their own head cannons and fanfics about characters outside the written narrative. Just because SJM wants you to ship Feysand, doesn’t mean you can’t write or ship TamlinxRhysand, or Gwynriel or Rhysta. Art, including text, is open to interpretation and you are allowed to make it your own too, even if the text itself makes it clear it’ll never happen. Hell, shipping Elain and Tamlin because they both like flowers is entirely valid! Fan fiction and ships don’t have to be defended by the text/author’s intent, they are your own creation and can be based on whatever you want! Have fun, go crazy with em.

What isn’t ok for criticism

You can criticize the actions and choices and motivations of a book character all you want, using whichever method of critique you want. If you want to call Rhysand a pedo because he came to a pic of his child, you can make that take. If you call Tamlin a serial abuser who brought everything on himself, you can make that take.

What isn’t ok, is using your takes to criticize the people who disagree with you.

(These are just a few examples I’ve seen in the last few days, but I’m pretty sure everyone in this fandom has seen personal attacks along these lines, some far worse than the ones I grabbed. It’s also not a matter of degrees of bad faith criticism, all of these are of the same vein and one isn’t more ‘valid’ than others because it wasn’t as harsh.) Believing Rhysand is a pedo doesn’t make it ok to call people who like him the same. Believing Lucien is a terrible person doesn’t make someone who likes him a person of questionable morals. Having a different method of criticizing a text doesn’t make someone else’s different way of approaching the text wrong.

At the end of the day, these characters, this world, this narrative are all constructs, not people. You are not Feyre, you are not Tamlin, you are not Rhysand or a Valkyrie or Elain or Cassian. You do not deserve to be judged for the actions of fictional characters, and you should not be judged for your opinions on these characters either. And you need to let others have differing opinions on characters, even ones you dislike intensely.

Let people like the characters they want to like, let people criticize the characters they don’t like (or the ones they do) and for fuck’s sake, don’t take it or make it personal.

[bayesiandragon]

Whenever I come across debate about the meaning of written works being defined by authorial intent vs reader interpretation, I think about Fahrenheit 451. Specifically, about Ray Bradbury getting into heated argument with literature students on the meaning of his book, where the near universal takeaway was (and still is to this day) that it was a commentary of government control via censorship and destruction of knowledge, but his intended meaning was more limited to how mass media consumption was making people dumb. 

From which my own takeaway is that, sometimes things are written in a way that accidentally confer a meaning - or at least create additional parallels/allegories - that were not intended, but do latently exist there to come alive in the minds of readers.

[harveybwabbit92]

{Game is called Rinmaru anime avatar creator Link to the site in case anyone wants to use it.]

This is my interpretation of what I think the reader would look like in my Belial x reader series and Quotes, (She doesn't have to look like this; her appearance is completely up to you guys, but this is just how I see her.)

Some background info for R/n: She is a teacher and youth counselor at an international high-school that teaches the children of both human and alien celebrities and government officials. R/n is the homeroom teacher of the third years in class D who are a group of late transfers, year repeaters and delinquents.

The Reader is one of the few teachers the kids actually show respect to, because unlike everyone else? she actually listens to them and tries to assist them when they need help; instead of ignoring them, giving them crap advice or is just acting like she cares in an attempt to suck up to their parents.

This mutual respect is shown when Belial moves in with her and R/n sometimes shows up to school with mystery injuries. (From getting into fights with aliens coming after Belial.) Causing the kids to worry they started asking her if everything was okay at home? and some of the more rowdier students asked if there a Slime-ball who needed their ass kicked? Cos they'd be happy to oblige. Luckily, R/n was quick to convinced the kids that nothing sinister was going on; she had joined a boxing team and the injuries were from participating in matches.

When not in her classroom R/n can usually be found hiding out in her office. Sometimes Takeshi (80) joins her during lunch breaks or sometimes Belial goes to work with her (in his doll form of course.), he gets lonely when she's not around but won't admit it.

[zeeengris]

[re-flets]

I agree that misinterpretation is inevitable— regardless of form,genre,language. how can one truly access the heart of the sentiment & relay it to the objective reader, and not have it molded by interpretation from the reader's perspective. the same phrase might not be interpreted similarly by two separate readers. when we create through writing, cautiously considering one's takeaway, we envision the audience. does mentally fabricating this audience then aide us in expressing our creation, or confine us, in the process.

Andrey Kneller, the translator of My Poems: Selected Poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva [bilingual edition] 

[gretavdr]

From Author's Hands to Reader's Minds

I have been musing lately on how my books come across to others. I wrote them. Until they were published they were mine. Now, of course, they belong to whoever bought them and my opinion of what I wrote hardly matters anymore. But I still find it intriguing. Quite a few people have left reviews of my work, some good, some scathing. It’s fascinating how people have interpreted my intention, or…

[originalartblog]

Dazai take the fucking antidote

[rubberbandgirlme]

wade can talk about noble sacrifice and marvel jesusing all he wants but he was ready to die for his friends and for logan, instead of logan, because he wanted him to live. “say hi to my friends for me, peanut”, says the man who wants logan to become a part of the group, a pack, again, to take his place in protecting the people he loves, probably the only one he trusts to do so. and there is so much love in his desire for logan to stay alive and finally experience something good in life

[a-small-writer-in-a-big-world]

UGH YESSSS

He’d be so ready to comfort you and then after you’re done crying he’s on a war path

Comfort in the lion’s den 🦁

@a-small-writer-in-a-big-world ❤️

[river--ghost]

[a-small-writer-in-a-big-world]

Ello! I’ll just leave this here🙃

AGGSUABAUSBSIANSJBAIABSIANSIBDISNSISNSISN AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHJH ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ @thedevillovesflowers

I fucking love this so much it’s so tender it’s so beautiful omfg I can’t wait to write a scene like this for the mute reader series I can’t want for it all to come together HAVEUABAJSBSJANKSNA

[hyhkai]

camboy! | c.yj.

[ 🎥 ] — after yeonjun's rise in the porn industry, an interview was something he agreed to for fun. however, after he saw you, the interviewer, he wished it was a fake interview where he gets to fuck you.

cw : pornstar!yeonjun. unedited word vomit fictional magazine company that apparently also exists in real life.

a/n ; i apologize for my sins i swear I'll change 🙏🏼 and this is a drabble, not a fic! i might turn it into one over time ♡

after you reached out to him a few weeks ago with greetings and compliments, and asking can I interview you some time? I'd like to know what it's like to be a person who earns through the adult industry, and with your fame, I know that you're just the right person., his first, honest reaction was to laugh. i mean, seriously?

he was laughing at the irony of the fact that he was being interviewed. i mean, who was willing enough to take out time of their busy, hectic schedule to interview a man who earns bread by having a dildo inside of him? he had to know. he wanted to know what this person was like.

he did think that this could be completely false and you could be a potential threat, trying to lure him into your little cage with cheese like he's a fucking rat, capture him and do bad things to him like he'd heard with various nefarious acts of people against people with 'easy' fame.

"can I get proof that you're actually an interviewer?"

to which he immediately got a response with a photo of a xerox copy of your identification document, namely at a popular company called mode de vie. he could see the black and white ink that framed the photo stuck on the top right corner, and he knew that he had to see that fucking face in real life. if that's how you look in a awfully captured picture, so captivating, bold, and confidence outlining your eyes in the form of sharp eyeliner, he had to see that face in front of him, asking him questions about his body count or something else he doesn't give two shits about.

he'd said sure to your offer almost immediately now that he saw that it was a real interviewer after him. and now that it was time, he drove to the place where you both agreed to be at — a café which was relatively close to his house and your office.

"I'm glad you came!" you said as you shook his hand that would eventually get sweaty from just sitting opposite to you. what the fuck? he seriously considered telling you to quit this stupid, serious job and just join him in his public sex life. you were stunning.

now that he saw your hair open, framing your face, and that fucking sharp-ass eyeliner, he was mad that he didn't dress up nicely and instead came in a hoodie. who wants to miss a chance of getting a baddie?

he thanked the lords he'd long forgotten when you told him this is just an audio based interview which will later be turned into a text format.

while you continued asking him questions about everything, from "fuck-a-fan" to "how did your mother find out?", he'd needed to ask you to repeat your questions several times. his eyes kept drifting down, down to your chest.

'why the fuck are you wearing a top so low-cut? is it to provoke me or something?' he'd think. he legitimately wants to put his hand on the table, pushing himself towards you and grabbing one of your tits. it's pissing him off he can't.

okay, so maybe he was a pervert like one of his friends liked to say. but it wasn't his fault when you were asking him questions about his sex life while looking at him with those eyes that were possibly tearing his clothes off.

in his world, that is.

'do you want to fuck me too, or am I trippin'?'

he knew he had to keep his filthy hands, his filthy thoughts, to himself. c'mon, it's a fucking interview, yeonjun. grow up. you've had plenty of girls and guys to fuck in your life. from small and petite, to taller than you. from fucking someone to getting fucked. you've done it all. why are you so captivated by this woman?

maybe it was the way you had your makeup done that had him wishing he could see it smeared all over with a new makeup product; his cum, or maybe it was your tits that were practically begging to be the thing he shoves his face in tonight. but no, it was the way you carried yourself.

there was this... this aura, this radiation of confidence that was magnetic enough for him to be pulled to you.

under the table, he was practically going to rub one out. he kept adjusting his pants, kept palming his dick that was straining against his pants and standing up against his thoughts of not fucking you ever.

ugh, just how fucking good you'd look on his bed, and he swears he could go above his rounds per fucking streak of 4 with you; from classic missionary to the amazon position, from sixty-nine to his foot on your face while he fucked your ass from the back. fuck, he'd even let you peg him, something he's always refused to do.

just how good you'd look while sliding your strap-on inside of him, his eyes going wide, as well as your smile at the sight of his pretty face. he thinks you'd like some crazy songs playing in the background, similar to the vibe of playboi carti.

fuck, he'd hold onto your tits for support, comfort, for just the fucks of it no matter who is topping.

"um, excuse me?" you asked when he spaced out in the middle.

"yeah?" he said, looking up from the table where both of your milkshakes resided.

"thank you for the interview. i appreciate it a lot!" you said, smiling at him, completely unaware of the junk he had in his brain about you. you put out your hand for a friendly yet professional handshake.

"oh, yeah, of course." he muttered out, responding to your hand with his that was definitely sweaty.

as you closed your notepad and stopped the recording, he looked up at your face finally.

"can I ask you a question too?"

"oh, yes, of course." you said, looking up at him with a face of genuine curiosity. maybe it would be something like —

"when will this be posted?"

"where can I read it?"

"will there be a hardcopy?"

"would you ever fuck me if you could?"

and suddenly, this was the first time you regretted not recording the aftermath of an interview.

[random-twst-things]

Epel: Here’s a fun Christmas idea. We hang a mistletoe, but instead of kissing, you have to FIGHT whoever else is under it

Vil: Epel, no

Mc/Y/N/Yuu: Mistlefoe

Vil: Mc/Y/N/Yuu, stop encouraging him

Mc/Y/N/Yuu: I'm not, I just threw in a creative name for his new tradition

Epel: Mistlefoe... Got a nice ring to it, I'll use it!

Vill: NO!

Dividers by/from @/cafekitsune

[harveybwabbit92]

{The game is called Rinmaru anime avatar creator here's the Link to the site in case anyone wants to use it.]

[This is my interpretation of what I think the reader would look like in my Tregear version in my Spark-doll au shorts and Quotes series, (She doesn't have to look like this; her appearance is completely up to you guys, but this is just how I see her.)]

This her reaction to after seeing Kirisaki turn into Ultraman Tregear for the first time and she is utterly terrified.

Reader bio: The Reader is a college student studying to become a forensic scientist, though she originally wanted to be a astrophysicist. but due to a personal tragedy she dropped out of college on her 2nd year and became a Neet for a few years before returning college partially anyway, she takes most of her classes on online and only comes onto campus for tests or exams or to borrow the lab.

One day R/n's computer died and she had to order a new one, which gave her no choice but to start coming to school again, one the days she came in she met a fellow student in the science department, an odd fellow named Kirisaki, R/n took an immediately dislike of him considering the first thing he did when they met was insult her.

R/n did her best avoid him which Kirisaki found amusing and responded by teasing her and would randomly pop up places she frequented.

Which pissed the usually timid R/n off enough for her tell him off which she immediately regretted when Kirisaki morphed into his true form Ultraman Tregear much to R/n's horror! but before he could do anything to her; his color timer went off and Tregear reverted to the form of a small doll. Needless to say, R/n wasted no time running away from him, unfortunately R/n dropped her campus ID which had her address on it, So Tregear used that to track her down...

One couldn't describe the confusion and horror R/n felt when she woke up the next morning to the the smell of (IDK bacon, pancakes, eggs?) and found Kirisaki in her kitchen cooking and walking around like he owned the place.