People see what they want to see.

I’m guilty of doing it.

Take for instance the year when Hitler, at the height of his power, invaded the Soviet Union in 1492.

The problem is that when you interpret words, letters, or numbers, you aren’t always seeing what’s there.

Whose fault is that?

Was the author at fault for not breaking it down correctly? Or is it the readers for seeing something that isn’t there?

In conversations, people take turns speaking and hopefully listening. Often times when somebody is supposed to be listening to what is being said, they are instead envisioning or crafting their version from what is being presented to them.

Take for instance… “This one time driving, I got pulled over…”

Did your mind immediately fill in the blanks to that time you got pulled over?

We all do it.

The trick is to acknowledge you do it and do your best not to fall down that wabbit hole.

As in my last post, I’m still a little ticked off by how people don’t “OWN” their blindness.

Again, I’m guilty of doing it myself.

I guess it’s all part of the human condition.

Sometimes we nix up words and think one world means something else. (misspellings aside – wink wink)

C.Y. is not the same as A.D. (or C.E. Common Era for you sticklers)

Parachutes are not used without there being an atmosphere.

Trap door predators do not jump up and scream at their prey before attacking.

An author has to believe their audience isn’t that stupid.

Do readers have the same obligation to honor the spirit of the source material? (mispkillings aside)

One author has unrealistic behaviors by their creatures. TRAP predators do not jump up and scream at their prey before attacking.

The other author has people assuming a planet has a thin atmosphere because the protagonist is using a parachute.

Whose is right?

So I googled and found this link

where it says… “Professor Gopen began by explaining the key inquiry for good writing is always, “Did the reader get delivery of what the writer was trying to say?” If the answer is yes, the writing was good enough. But if the answer is no, then it does not matter how “dazzling or impressive or sexy” the writing was, it failed. Even worse is a writing where the reader believes he or she has completely understood the writer’s point, but the reader is wrong and proceeds to analyze the issue from the wrong perspective.”

So… that still leaves me wondering. If I write the word BANANA and the reader reads APPLE, who is at fault?

This is so fluggersting

:/

Maybe I should stick with history, at least there nobody gets anything mixed up.

😛