They say write to be understood. But what’s the point in spelling it all out?
Said author William Faulkner in an interview with the Paris Review:
INTERVIEWER
Some people say they can’t understand your writing, even after they read it two or three times. What approach would you suggest for them?
FAULKNER
Read it four times.
Write to be misunderstood?
It doesn’t hurt to make an arcane reference here and there to keep the reader guessing. Obscurity is luminosity.
Said author Jonathan Franzen in lunch with the Financial Times:
“I think you have to have a few things that you have to kind of chew on to get.”
When you first listen to a new Radiohead song, something about it sounds off. But after a few listens, the sounds in between appear and ameliorate Thom Yorke’s mystical voice. Nothing makes sense, but the emotional tug works, the same way laughter doesn’t need thought.
It shouldn’t be the author or musician’s goal to demystify everything. The maker is often still figuring it out himself, recasting their own interpretation.