Whose fault?

When you read something that you don't understand, do you blame the writer or do you blame yourself? Most of us probably blame ourselves most of the time. I'm not smart enough to understand that. I didn't read carefully enough. I couldn't concentrate. Any of these may be true, of course, but writers sometimes need to share the blame.

The whole point of writing is to communicate, to convey one's thoughts, one's ideas, one's information, one's inspiration or whatever to others. When the message doesn't get across, the writer may be as much to blame as the reader.

Thomas Pynchon

A writer's message may be intended for certain readers, of course. Scholars write for other scholars, not for ordinary people on the street. Poets write for those who appreciate poetry. Thomas Pynchon didn't write for the same audience as Danielle Steel. The writer is more likely at fault when the intended audience doesn't understand.

I often don't understand what I am reading. Certain Bible passages baffle me. Sometimes I tackle books about black holes or time travel that are mostly beyond me. But then that was also true when, in the first grade, I first encountered a Dick and Jane reader. Some of the Robert Frost poems I've been reading lately I can appreciate, others not so much. Some of those William Trevor stories I reviewed here recently left me perplexed. My fault? Trevor's fault? I don't really know, but I'm willing to take the blame.