This week: The Art of Misinterpretation Edited by: ~Minja~  
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| “We cannot control the way people interpret our ideas or thoughts, but we can control the words and tones we choose to convey them. Peace is built on understanding, and wars are built on misunderstandings. Never underestimate the power of a single word, and never recklessly throw around words. One wrong word, or misinterpreted word, can change the meaning of an entire sentence and start a war. And one right word, or one kind word, can grant you the heavens and open doors.” ~Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem |
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Even though the quote I shared above can trick you into thinking this newsletter is about being careful with words for the purpose of keeping the peace and love, that's not what this is all about. On the contrary, I want to encourage you to do just that; I want to encourage you to explore the art of misinterpretation and how it can be used for creative writing purposes.
In reality, we try to stay away and protect ourselves from the harm that conflicts may cause of course. In creative writing, this isn't always the case. Writers often use misunderstandings to build characters and to deliver great stories to their readers. One such story is Atonement.
Atonement is a British metafiction novel, written by Ian McEwan and published in 2001. It is one of my favorite pieces of writing where misunderstanding and misperception rule the entire plot, leading characters into conflict and misery. 13 years old Briony creates conflict when her young mind observe the silly moment between her older sister Cecilia and their family servant's son, Robbie. Because she was on a great distance, couldn't see them clearly and couldn't hear the conversation between them, her mind interprets the situation wrongfully. She assumes Robbie is being harsh with Cecilia.
On the contrary, Robbie is growing genuine affection toward Cecilia and she toward him. He decides to write her a love letter. One particular draft contained lewd and vulgar word and, instead of discarding it right away, Robbie gives that letter to Briony by mistake, asking of her to give it to her sister. When Briony read what was written inside, her young mind concludes that Robbie is a person of trouble. Later that night Briony runs into Cecilia and Robbie once again—this time while they share a rather passionate moment— and, again, she misinterprets the situation. At the family dinner party, the same night, Briony discovers her cousin Lola being assaulted by a man whom she couldn't see the face. To move the plot to another unfortunate level, Briony accuses Robbie and tells the police that he is a rapist. She is so sure of it because of everything she misunderstood that day. However, it wasn't Robbie who assaulted Lola. Readers learn this very soon. Robbie goes to jail though and, after several years, he is being released on the condition he enlists in the army where he suffers injuries and dies before evacuation in Dunkirk. Cecilia dies in the hospital where she worked. During the war, they never met each other. The entire plot was built on the set of misinterpretation of passionate love.
In today's society where so many people communicate through social networks, it's very easy to misinterpret shared content. I'm sure those of you who hang out on Facebook know exactly what I'm talking about. You probably run into the articles whose titles are taken out of the context and like that send wrong information about the article to readers. Many people on Facebook don't bother to click on the link and read the entire articles but make conclusions and comments based only on the title that popped up in their newsfeed. This is really bad practice because it leads to misinterpretation and misuse of given information. Though, from the writer's side, created drama in the comment section due to lack of information can be a solid inspiration, don't you agree?
We constantly interpret what is happening around us— what the others do or say, what we read or see. We interpret the past events and we also interpret the near future sometimes. Sometimes our interpretation is right and often times is wrong. There are several reasons why we misinterpret situations. From a psychological point of view, one of the reasons is overanalyzing things. Sounds familiar? Yes, I've been there too, caught up in this neverending thread of thoughts that gives distorted perspective. Another reason is that we see things/situations as black and white, good and bad. We don't see the middle parts, the transitions, the mid shades. Usually, those transitions are the key to understanding something fully and correctly. In Atonement novel Briony assumes Robbie is being harsh toward Cecilia because of his body language she spotted from a long distance. When he put his hand up to stop Cecilia from coming closer to him he did it to save her bare feet from the shattered glass that laid on the ground in front of her, not because he was upset and harsh with her as Briony assumed. When they shared a passionate moment in the library later they did it because of huge affection toward each other not because Robbie is too harsh while making love with Cecilia as Briony assumed. Either from a great distance or a real closeness, Briony is unable to see transitions and ends up misinterpreting both situations. Her immaturity can be used as an excuse of course since she is only 13 years old child, living in 1935 when social norms were far different than today. But it was her immaturity to be blamed for giving us a great novel that Atonement is  .
Until next time, don't forget to double check both sides of the story.
~Minja~
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#1992580 by Not Available. |
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Excerpt: Everyone has a story even if he doesn’t think so. And there are more than one view points.
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Excerpt: Springtime hung in the air, with its warmer weather finally reaching the streets. Even so, Charlie shivered as he sat with his back against the door. He hugged his knees, and his eyes darted from side to side. He knew J.T. was out there watching him.
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Excerpt: The door slams in my face and I slump over, head against the window in complete shock. How could this be? This has to be a nightmare, but I can feel the metal handcuffs cutting into my wrists. I felt the car lurch forward as we moved. No, this isn’t a dream at all. How long had I been there on the kitchen floor? Maybe I fell asleep. Maybe someone came in while I was asleep and did it. My poor Jessica!
But even as I promise myself I didn’t do this, the sinking feeling in my gut tells me that something terrible has happened. I try to think back to the argument. I see myself grabbing her wrists. I can see myself throwing her to the ground as she screams. I shake my head, my breaths coming quick and shallow. I’m hyperventilating as the tears flow freely. I intake a sharp breath and scream as loud as I can as the cops fly through the muggy night, bringing me to my grave.
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Excerpt: A shovel will do it nicely ~
work tends to blind
those who refuse to see
a pattern beyond dates on a calendar
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Drama: March 27, 2019 Issue [#9458]
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