misinterpretation
Reading poetry and listening to lyrics of songs is always a mixed bag. My "favorites" tend to be written about one thing, but I interpret them to mean another. Occasionally, there's the double- or triple-entendre, which is clever and all, but often I have to pick the interpretation that I can most relate to.
I know I especially purposely misinterpret the lyrics to love songs. I used to listen to the easy-listening station on my way to and from the community college I attended while I was in high school, singing along with the radio, not really knowing what half the songs truly said. I would interpret some of them as significant to my relationship with God, and over the years, the angels and I have had some running traditions, with songs like "Hanging by a Moment." You know, the lines about starving for truth and not knowing what I'm diving into. As I've heard the song over the years, it's always taken me to the same place. Now that I own Lifehouse's "No Name Face," though, I can listen to the song whenever I want, and I do fairly often.
And then there are the songs that I interpret as love songs when other people may not agree. My favorite idea that comes to mind was my arguing with my brother over whether Something Corporate's "Punk Rock Princess" is a love song or not. If I ever find The One, I'm learning to play it on the piano and I'll play it at the wedding. Hah. Because I will always be an angsty teenager, now, and five/ten/twenty years from now.
I've been playing through the new translation of Final Fantasy VI for the Game Boy Advance (it was released over a decade ago as Final Fantasy III for the Super Nintendo) and I've been surprised at the subtle differences. The original translator took some liberties with names of people, items, and spells, largely, I would guess, because of the maximum character limits on such things. Stragos had to be called Strago because there were only six letters for a character name (strangely enough, there is still a six character limit on names in this version, though I'm guessing it's because of the spacing allowed when characters' names are said in conversations); items like Phoenix Downs had to be spelled "Fenix Down" because there wasn't enough room to spell it right; even the simple spells like "Blizzard" and "Thunder" had to be "Ice" and "Bolt." Anyway, I'm digressing. What I really wanted to mention is that Edgar and Sabin are twin brothers; in the SNES version they spoke as if Edgar was significantly older than Sabin. And when the gang meets up with Sabin, in the original version, he randomly refers to himself as a "bear" and asks if they want his help. In the new translation, this comment actually makes sense, because the gang was fighting bears when Sabin showed up, and Terra says that at first, she thought he was another bear (in the SNES version she says she thought he was "a bodybuilder who had strayed from his gym," which makes no sense at all, in the context of the game). So, anyway, it's really neat to see the new translation/interpretation. So far, so good.
I keep thinking about my new novel and how I want it to "sound." I finished Tomas' novel and really liked his command over tone and style. The story has an ensemble cast, and we get into the minds of several characters through different means. It just seemed so well written and thought out. Hah, I'm definitely going to try to set aside October to plan my next NaNo novel so that November is more fruitful. Less "fly by the seat of my pants," which I have to admit is part of the fun, but more of a payoff with the end result, I think. Anyway, Tomas' novel also leaves parts to interpretation early in the novel, and only as you continue do you get the full picture. It was an interesting concept with interesting results, although I caught on and started expecting things to play out certain ways, which was neat, too.
Still muddling through Don Quixote. It's fun to read the English translation with the footnotes, because sometimes I know what the footnote's going to say before I get there. Cervantes does a lot of plays-on-words that obviously don't translate from Spanish to English often, but I know enough Spanish to "interpret" the wordplay before the footnote has to explain it.
Anyway, I think the way I interpret the written and spoken word, and sometimes just the physical world around me, could use some exercise. Maybe that's why I've been daydreaming more, practicing all the escapism I can.
At first, I thought I might stop reading novels again for a while to focus on my story. But really, I'm not writing writing yet; I'm planning. Moreover, I just keep getting different examples of different ways of writing and I feel like I'll find my own style more if I can see where I stand with respect to some of what's out there. I don't know. We'll see.
I know I especially purposely misinterpret the lyrics to love songs. I used to listen to the easy-listening station on my way to and from the community college I attended while I was in high school, singing along with the radio, not really knowing what half the songs truly said. I would interpret some of them as significant to my relationship with God, and over the years, the angels and I have had some running traditions, with songs like "Hanging by a Moment." You know, the lines about starving for truth and not knowing what I'm diving into. As I've heard the song over the years, it's always taken me to the same place. Now that I own Lifehouse's "No Name Face," though, I can listen to the song whenever I want, and I do fairly often.
And then there are the songs that I interpret as love songs when other people may not agree. My favorite idea that comes to mind was my arguing with my brother over whether Something Corporate's "Punk Rock Princess" is a love song or not. If I ever find The One, I'm learning to play it on the piano and I'll play it at the wedding. Hah. Because I will always be an angsty teenager, now, and five/ten/twenty years from now.
I've been playing through the new translation of Final Fantasy VI for the Game Boy Advance (it was released over a decade ago as Final Fantasy III for the Super Nintendo) and I've been surprised at the subtle differences. The original translator took some liberties with names of people, items, and spells, largely, I would guess, because of the maximum character limits on such things. Stragos had to be called Strago because there were only six letters for a character name (strangely enough, there is still a six character limit on names in this version, though I'm guessing it's because of the spacing allowed when characters' names are said in conversations); items like Phoenix Downs had to be spelled "Fenix Down" because there wasn't enough room to spell it right; even the simple spells like "Blizzard" and "Thunder" had to be "Ice" and "Bolt." Anyway, I'm digressing. What I really wanted to mention is that Edgar and Sabin are twin brothers; in the SNES version they spoke as if Edgar was significantly older than Sabin. And when the gang meets up with Sabin, in the original version, he randomly refers to himself as a "bear" and asks if they want his help. In the new translation, this comment actually makes sense, because the gang was fighting bears when Sabin showed up, and Terra says that at first, she thought he was another bear (in the SNES version she says she thought he was "a bodybuilder who had strayed from his gym," which makes no sense at all, in the context of the game). So, anyway, it's really neat to see the new translation/interpretation. So far, so good.
I keep thinking about my new novel and how I want it to "sound." I finished Tomas' novel and really liked his command over tone and style. The story has an ensemble cast, and we get into the minds of several characters through different means. It just seemed so well written and thought out. Hah, I'm definitely going to try to set aside October to plan my next NaNo novel so that November is more fruitful. Less "fly by the seat of my pants," which I have to admit is part of the fun, but more of a payoff with the end result, I think. Anyway, Tomas' novel also leaves parts to interpretation early in the novel, and only as you continue do you get the full picture. It was an interesting concept with interesting results, although I caught on and started expecting things to play out certain ways, which was neat, too.
Still muddling through Don Quixote. It's fun to read the English translation with the footnotes, because sometimes I know what the footnote's going to say before I get there. Cervantes does a lot of plays-on-words that obviously don't translate from Spanish to English often, but I know enough Spanish to "interpret" the wordplay before the footnote has to explain it.
Anyway, I think the way I interpret the written and spoken word, and sometimes just the physical world around me, could use some exercise. Maybe that's why I've been daydreaming more, practicing all the escapism I can.
At first, I thought I might stop reading novels again for a while to focus on my story. But really, I'm not writing writing yet; I'm planning. Moreover, I just keep getting different examples of different ways of writing and I feel like I'll find my own style more if I can see where I stand with respect to some of what's out there. I don't know. We'll see.