I am one dimensional thinking with my eyes and two dimensional thinking with my mind.

I have just discovered I was at war with my mind. I thought I was writing literally word for word with each word having my own personal meaning/value. What I was doing was trying to interpret what the writer sees in the words I write that I don't. I was writing abstractly trying to get the reader to use my words instead of their words. I give all my words special meaning and value. I see I understand, you see, differently the words and their meaning as I wrote.

To coin a phrase you see apples I see oranges. I see the word with my eyes but understand the word differently in my mind. How does that work? I am beside myself! Help! Paul

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by John on April 1, 2013 at 9:31pm

People see:

1) what they want to see

2) what they need to see

3) what you mean for them to see.

Interpretation(s), translation(s), concept(s) and meaning(s)

Only if the context is understood, then one may see your possible meaning. First comes context, then comes the collections of concepts and meanings and then the word is a translation of your thinking which yields a (hopefully) solid interpretation.

However, nothing really works that way.

I'd recommend getting a Thesaurus (Rogets). That is a compilation of all subjects/ideas with their contexts, the meanings and also synonyms (set of words) to get the correct idea across. If you have a dictionary of synonyms... throw it in the trash <g>; get a real thesaurus.

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The other thing that happens often (especially on this web site) is that there is a big difference between Exoteric meaning and Esoteric meaning.

Exoteric is taking the word literally. Esoteric is taking the word as having a meaning more abstract (symbolical, allegorical, characteristic, denotative, emblematic, figurative, indicative, indicatory, significant, suggestive, symptomatic, token, cynical, glyph, ...).

A Poem has an Exoteric reading (e.g.computer translator) and Esoteric meaning(s) depending upon what the author really meant to convey. A "Flower" as "Love" is a good example. (as is apocalyptic literature)

maybe some of the above will help....

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Permalink Reply by Hari Menon on April 2, 2013 at 3:32am

Dear Paul ,

You can try one thing - write what you want - but make two versions of it - Describe what you want to write and then Explain what you are writing . Or Explain yourself first and then describe the explanation yourself . Hope this helps .