Interpretations

I found Amiri Baraka's discussion of people's interpretations of word to be very interesting. Because we all speak with intentions we often apply the connotations of word in the ideas we are trying to get across, but I have never thought about what the audience might have experienced and their connections and definitions of the words I use. I think that this idea is really interesting because there is really no way to change the way you yourself talk because you will never know what your audience is taking away from it but only what you mean by it.

I think that this idea is really important to poetry because we can rarely completly understand what the author was trying to convey. This also means that to every reader the poetry will mean something completely different. And because experiences and culture have so much to do with the way you understand things the authors idea and your reaction may not be the same but the words have moved you anyway and from the "Poetry commentary" we read in class that is the purpose of poetry.

Baraka brings up culture a lot in "Expressive Language (1963)." I think that this is important to the way that people understand things because different people experience different things, have learn different things and react differently to things. This would have an effect on our writting habits and the way we understand other people.