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joetophat t1_j2e81ql wrote

Nothing wrong with simply enjoying a story. I've grown to despise literary snobs who look down at folks for not understanding deeper meanings in certain books. That turns so many people off from reading. Reading a book should be for pleasure not for study.

In the case of Alice in Wonderland, it's just meant to be a crazy adventure. If you're interesting in delving deeper into the story, try reading the Annotated Alice in Wonderland by Martin Gardner. It talks about the history of the book and what influenced Lewis Carroll, like how most if not al the poems were actually parodies of popular poems of the day. It's just that most have been forgotten.

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DeborahJeanne1 t1_j2f56kb wrote

I’m on the Stephen King sub, and initially I felt inadequate because I seemed to be missing the “deeper meaning” of his books. People would write about what “the book really means” and I would think, “they got all that out of this book?” I was perplexed.

Then I decided if they want to look for these deeper meanings, more power to them. I don’t read a lot of fiction, but I don’t try to analyze them either. I read superficially - for entertainment- and no longer apologize for it.

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