My book club told me to stop arguing about the author's intent and I'm glad I listened

For about 6 months I kept derailing our discussions by digging up interviews and author notes to prove my point about why a character did something. Last week our moderator Carol pulled me aside and said 'nobody cares what the author meant, we care what the book made you feel.' At first I was annoyed but then I tried just talking about my own reaction to the ending of The Goldfinch. It changed how I read the whole book. Has anyone else had a group where you had to learn to step back?

3 comments

3 Comments

felixlane18d ago

Yeah I had the same thing happen in my horror book group. I used to come in hot with all this stuff about Dario Argento's behind-the-scenes decisions and the group just wanted to talk about what scared them. Once I shut up and let myself just react to the story I started enjoying the discussions way more.

angela_morgan18d ago

Right, @felixlane said it, once you let go of the 'behind the scenes' stuff, the story hits way different.

charles_coleman18d ago

Felix nailed it though, that's the thing - you can't talk your way into the experience. The whole point of a good horror story is letting it mess with your head without needing to know who picked the camera angle lol. Once you let the mystery do its job, the scares land a lot harder.