Dear Vicky
I now see your quest for identity in this piece. It is interesting to discover your purpose in writing it. My take was different.
Which is more important? The writer’s purpose or the reader’s interpretation?
However much we are taught to seek the writer’s meaning, the individual personal interpretation of each reader is as valid.
There is actually something fundamentally important about this in all of our lives.
‘God' or a god said this or that. Proposition. We are all entitled to our own opinion on what they are reputed to have or not have said and act accordingly. Surely?
Trump or Johnson said this. The same.
We should all be straight and condemn abortion. More of the same.
Religion, politics and sex.
I note you have read and clapped for my piece ‘I am' which gives some ideas of who I am or more to the point who I think I may be, my own search for my own identity.
I hope you also found my response to ‘Not waving but drowning’.
Might I suggest you seek out the writing site ‘Writers Cafe' online. I used to call it my writing home and you will still find me there as James Hanna-Magill. I have not however been there much in recent years other than from time to time to post new pieces of writing which may also appear on Medium. Other parts of my life have taken over.
I would however recommend Writers Cafe to you. On Medium, if anyone does anything in relation to others’ writing other than ignoring it, they follow the writer or clap for their writing. Engagement with other writers is slim. Responses are rare.
On Writers Cafe however the notion of reviewing others writing so as to be reviewed is extant. Friendships and discussions between writers burgeon and writers and readers learn much about themselves, each other, how others intrepret your writing, the art of writing, and how to write better.
The equivalent of ‘following' on Medium is ‘making friends' instead. There is no notion of clapping, which some may find a little trite. If you want to weigh up anyone’s writing you have to publicly review it. No other option. You actually have to form a sentence which hopefully extends to more than two words.
One thing Writers Cafe allows you to do, which Medium does not, is to privately message each other. Not all discussion needs to be for public consumption. Writers Cafe is also free to join.
From time to time I like to make a point of reviewing that is ‘responding to' others writing on here, not to be reviewed but because I enjoy bathing in others words, constructs and emotions anywhere. Otherwise, I think for us all if we want to be heard anywhere including on Medium, we should listen first.
On Writers Cafe, I make some statements about myself and refer to a novel set out there in very early draft, on which a vast number of people commented. That, with other things, has led to my having a vastly better version of my own held offline.
That draft novel, parts of which are shown on Medium, has had opportunities to be published but the usual closed doors too. I have decided these days it may be too personal to publish. Why put your head above the parapet to have it cut off? Maybe I may change my mind one day, maybe I may not.
I like this site all the same and may remain here for at least a while.
There are other valid writing sites I can recommend to you too which I have found it worth my while being on.
With my kindest regards
James