A coda on readers and responsibility

[oursin]

Further to yesterday's post on the subject, a depressing, if not entirely surprising, quote of relevance from today's Guardian Review Critical Eye column:
"I recently came across a sinister definition of a successful book club choice," confided Claudia FitzHerbert in the Daily Telegraph. "What didn't work, explained my informant, was ambiguity."

Comments

[hafren]

Yes, I'm getting more and more fed up with this notion that it is the writer's job to spell everything out and highlight it for the stupid or idle.

PS

[hafren]

Talking of idleness, I have just misread "something like an agora, something like a salon". I read "something like an angora, something like a salmon". I want to see this fabulous beast, NOW!

Re: PS

[oursin]

Fish with fleece, swims upstream and is trapped in nets by the peasantry of the region, who shear it and send it on its way.

[callunav]

I wonder (idly) if it's any and all kinds of ambiguity, anything left as an exercise for the reader, or specific kinds (say, moral).

I admit that I find moral ambiguity of the text (not the characters) a little difficult. It may be that I'm just not looking for that particular level of sophistication in my reading.

[oursin]

It's only a snippety little quote, not at all clear what type of ambiguity is meant.

[ex_truepenn]

My icon says it all.

[antisoppist]

If there's no ambiguity, what is there for the book club to discuss?

[oursin]

That baffled me, too.