The Answer Is 42

A new year has just begun and I'm about to write my first post of it. It would have probably been nice to start off with a long post about New Year's traditions in Austria or the uselessness of New Year's resolutions but here I am writing about poetry. Or rather, people who read to much into it. Something that happens not only with poetry, which purpose is to be interpreted in a way, but also paintings and books and everything even just faintly creative. Run as long as you still can, there's a rather long rant coming up!

First of all, I kinda have a thing for poetry. I'm in no way an expert, I'm just interested in it. I have a pile of poetry books at home and I just like to open them and read a few pages once in a while. There is, however, one thing that really irritates me: Why do people always have to overinterpret them? 

Sure, one of the main purposes of poetry is to be interpreted, but at some point some people just need to stop, take a deep breath and find a new hobby because they obviously have too much time on their hands. No every single word in coming from a poet's mouth (or pen) has to mean something. Sometimes, they just need it for a rhyme or the flow. Merely placing one metaphor after another usually does not make a great poem. Also, believe it or not, sometimes a poet might just really want to express that somebody's eyes are green. No deeper meaning intended.

The great vulnerability to being over-interpreted is something you will probably also stumble upon quite often when it comes to books or art. One of the best examples for the issue of people reading too much in something is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm sure you know the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. The answer is 42! Fans all over the world developed a number of different theories why the answer is exactly 42. Several of these theories involved binary representations, Tibetan  monks, office spreadsheets or the base thirteen. While all of these theories are really interesting, – and it's seriously impressing how people come up with all of this – that's what Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy, had to say about this:

"The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do'. I typed it out. End of story."

And let's be real here, if some of the old famous poets were still alive, the would have to do that all the time as well. If Richard Siken writes "He had green eyes, so I wanted to sleep with him", that does not have to represent the hope he saw in that guy or whatever. He probably just likes green eyes, maybe the guy he wrote that poem about simply had green eyes. Not everything a poet has to say, has to be deep and meaningful. Some people just have to get that in their heads!

So, sorry for the rant. I'll be back with new and interesting things next time. Toodles