Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.
President William Howard Taft
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Trying not to be misunderstood is tricky business. I know what I said. You think you know what I said. But what you think I said is not what I think I said. And if what you think I said is not what I think I said it's therefore not what I said, And if what I said is not what I think I said then what you think I said is what I said. Furthermore, if what you think I said is what I think I said then it doesn't matter what I said because what you think I said is what I said. And if what I said is not what you think I said and not what I think I said then it's not what I said. I hope that clarifies everything.
Dostoyevsky once remarked that if he is misunderstood he needs to go on his knees and beg our forgiveness. Maybe that's why he wrote such long novels, so that he wouldn't leave anything out.
All of you who have read a Dostoyevsky novel all the way through please raise your hands.
Uh-huh. I thought so.
From the few comments I get on my daily musings I can tell that some people miss my points. That's my fault. I'm obviously not writing so as not ot be misunderstood. I'm on my knees. Please forgive me?
Ah! Thank you.
DB - Vagabond
3 comments:
Right now, I've got the song "Oh Lord Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" running through my brain. "I'm just a soul whose intentions are good, oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood."
That's actually fairly profound, now that I think about it.
Hugs, Beth
I understand what you said but why you said it is the key to either being misunderstood or other people chosing to misunderstand becasue they want too- Or it's the out of context I'm saying this just because I can thing. I love what you say and let me make that "perfectly clear" I even quote you- Dannelle
Haven't read Fydor, but Rand and Pynchon (gravity's rainbow)!
yes, trying to not be misunderstood is far more difficult than being understood.
To be understood, you need only appeal to people's base interests, they get that. For someone to try to see things from your personal view, is so difficult. Why did you say what you said, and what made you say it? What does this mean to you and why does it matter?
On and on. Sometimes it isn't what you say, but what you don't. When you get the point that you can't add anything nor take a word away, STOP.
You are done.
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