Reading Should be Fun

By Annette Rey

I wrote a post on creating imaginative words and plugging them into your writing. In the process, I mentioned Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky where the author did just that. To treat myself again to that frabulous writing, I read the poem online. Besides loving it all over again, what else I found sort of disturbed me.

A lot of people are leaving comments about the mysteries they are imagining are in the Jabberwocky poem. Too many people are trying to interpret each word and struggling to wring out a suspected hidden meaning.

I say, just enjoy it like a child. Let the author’s presented words transport you into the unknown, cloudy realm he has created, and romp in the colors and the shade. Just learn how to be!

If Lewis Carroll were alive, I suspect he would say there is no hidden meaning at all, that he wrote it for the fun, the rhythm, and the rhyme.

This reminds me of a similar case. Dame Daphne du Maurier wrote Rebecca, a gothic-style mystery/love story. For decades, thousands of people have analyzed it to death, giving their deductions on more facets than was intended by the writer. When asked about all the hoopla over suspected “hidden” meanings, she was confounded, and answered, “It’s just a story about jealousy!”

So, lighten up, readers. Stop always looking for work. Live in the moment. Simply receive the gift of excellent story telling.

There must be a time where entertainment is just that.

Entertainment.