Mary Stufano- Macherey

This reading I found to be very confusing to read and interpret what Macherey was really trying to say. The vocabulary and the ideas he was presenting seemed very advanced. Even though it was a short reading it still took a very long time to understand. The quote, “In the book, then, everything is said, and for everything to be said we must await the critical ‘explicit’, which may actually be interminable.” For me Macherey is trying to say that when reading literature the words and ideas of any reading are really left up to the reader to interpret. This is because how you read anything and your thoughts on what is being read really does change your viewing on the subject matter. “Whence the problem: are there books which say what they mean, without being critical books, that is to say without depending directly on other books?” This I take this, as meaning that there really isn’t a way for text to be fully stated and not be left for any interpretation. I think that there are so many ways to read something and that is what Macherey is saying. Unlike hearing, when you read you don’t have a tone to hear to grasp the idea of the text more. But also just people having so many opinions and views on subjects shapes their thoughts of what they read. I think that this article can really just be described by showing pictures of books. The whole concept of this chapter was to learn about text and how it can be viewed and interpreted. This concept though has been going on forever though. People have always been thinking critically and that will never change. We leave our interpretations up to our brain and how it critically analyzes the information. I also think this applies to not only serious text but also fiction books also.