the heart of the matter is that all readers are interpreters and interpretation is necessary for reading. Good interpretation never struggles against the text, reading, as the fashion is, “against the grain,” deconstructing the textual surface and showing it up as a confidence trick. Good interpretation never tries to bargain with the text, forging a compromise between what it says and what we would like to hear from it. It never supplements the text, overlaying it with independent reflections that head off on their own devices, never invokes a higher wisdom to cover the text’s nakedness.
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