Alivio y Crecer / Relief and Growth: Text meanings are dependent on their context

Text and Context:

Depend on Each Other

1. Reading might be simple. But getting the full meaning from a text is a different matter. Just like a lemon. If it is not pressed and crushed fully, its juice will not come out. So understanding subtle meanings from a text is a process; not a one shot deal. This is due to the con-text: usually context—the implied meaning or historical background—is much broader, subtle, complex than the text. To say it simply context is the implied meaning. Very much like an iceberg: the German word for Ice Mountain. It is known that icebergs float in the sea, and the hidden (invisible) part is 6/7 OF THE TOTAL. Or in other terms, the visible part is only one seventh of the total iceberg. Text is like that: the visible part –the text or literal meaning--and context is the non visible part of an iceberg, to say it metaphorically. So what a text says, there are many--perhaps hundreds—of implied words and many meaning related to the con-text, which are not obvious. Ideally they should be researched, investigated, discovered.

Text comprises general contents or topics, like: word or vocabulary, punctuation rules, grammar, plot, characters and so forth. Other parts of the text are: events, genre, literary style, places and major events. Text usually is the visible or obvious part of a text; what might be called the obvious message.

We state that text (the obvious meaning) depends on context (a much broader and subtler levels). Text is usually written in a language and refers to common sense. Context is usually implied meanings, and has some ethical content and is not obvious upon as simple meaning. Some documents, some texts especially mythical, religious or mystical texts, refer to hidden assumptions of text: they need subtler interpretation of these often straightforward or literal meanings.

Context, on the other hand, is the implied, intangible and much more subtle part of the text. Much of the context implies interpretation and hermeneutics; that is the art of interpreting meanings. Meaning is not obvious. There are least for levels of meaning: simple or literal; implied or subtle; very subtle or metaphorical and subtleties or paradoxical or spiritual meaning. Not all texts have these levels. Parables, for example, refer to the most subtle meaning and are usually paradoxical in their meaning: they span time and place; and cross generations. Context is in a way much broader that the text. Like and iceberg (mountain of ice) it is beneath the obvious meaning. Context is: the time the action occurs, the historical context, old beliefs (we usually call primitive or mythological) form our modern perspective.

Most all texts are “dated” depend heavily on context or the time in which they were written. This is why “old” text seem so alien to us. They seem remote, almost foolish and totally unrelated to our present fast technological modern society. Why it is difficult for modern readers to understand classical wording and works such as “The Iliad”, “The Divine Comedy”, “Don Quixote” and many others? The historical contexts (thousand of years ago or centuries ago), customs and language context have shifted dramatically over the last century’s or even decades. This is the case of Greek Mythology or Egyptian mythology, or Indian, Buddhist and Mesopotamian mythologies thousand of years have elapsed. The contexts of these classical works have vanished. Apparently these classical writings tell nothing to modern humans. But their deeper human meaning is still much with us. On the surface they mean nothing at many deeper meaning, ethically speaking; not much has change in 3.000 years of human history.

Most of these classical works in written form, notable literally pieces, seem an empty shell, almost nonsense to modern men. That is why literally experts or scholars are needed to interpret and understand them. Just like training a Ph.D. and a scholar, usually takes decades, sometimes a whole lifetime of study, to understand the intricacies and subtleties of major literary works.

But this is only apparent. Having survived generations in writing when more than 98% of the population was illiterate texts attest to their power. Beneath the surface of an almost prosaic plot and characters that seem no longer relevant, there lies deep wisdom. Nevertheless this wisdom has to be sort of “fished out”, like divers perform “scuba diving” but of meaning, not fish.

So in a way if we venture to study the context of a traditional text, we will find—in a long process—that hidden, subtle and many meaning are revealed or clear as we study the context deeper and thoroughly. There are many genres in which we find present several meanings in text beyond the obvious, especially parables, paradoxes, children stories, popular narratives, aphorisms and the like.

Gustavo Jimenez Lagos