Wandering Ambiguously Around
One of the things I like about doing posts for Drop in the Ocean on the BuddyUp Discord server is exploring words I don’t normally use. Ambiguity is one of those words.
So, how am I wandering ambiguously around? I expect to be wandering around in inexactness on the subject and some of what I will be writing will be open to more than one interpretation. In a nutshell, that is what ambiguity is.
Now I know. When I get up and wander into another room, and find myself wondering why I am there — it will be my ambiguity — not my forgetting what I’m doing. Now, that sounds so much nicer. I went to the kitchen today and my ambiguity left me wondering why I was there.
Ambiguity Not Good in Legal Documents
Ambiguity can have both good and bad connotations. What if I’m reading a legal document and the author has written clauses in a manner that allows more than one interpretation with each interpretation having a different outcome? That is ambiguity applied to the detriment of the person presenting the document and likely to the benefit of those receiving it.
Legal documents need to be precise and without ambiguity on how they can be interpreted. Those receiving them must know, without confusion, what is being communicated and expected. Lawsuits arise from ambiguity.
Ambiguity in Literature
Generally, in writing, ambiguity occurs through imprecise writing. Many of the funniest memes we come across contain ambiguity which can be taken either way. Like:
The sentence is ambiguous because it’s not clear if the writer wants the children to eat or to each the children. A comma after “eat” conveys precise meaning.
Ambiguity can also be used to deliberately leave writing up to interpretation. Let’s have a look at this passage:
The old guy yawned, scratched his ear and took a look around. From his spot on the comfy armchair he could survey his kingdom, well most of his kingdom There was the matter of not being able to see into the kitchen, unfortunate lack, considering it was almost his favourite room in the house.
The house was quiet except for the noise of some dishes being moved around in the kitchen. The servant was likely preparing some food. OH, food, time to go have a look. The old guy lifted himself up off the chair, stretched his aching body and padded off to the kitchen. With some luck, there would be a tasty treat to be found while he had himself a drink of water.
Checking the treat bowl as he passed, he sighed, nothing new in there. The treats were tasty enough, just not what he had in mind. Maybe he could toss a hint or two at the servant and get her to give him something a little more to amenable to his current mood. It would be so much easier if they spoke the same language.
Well, the water is cool and refreshing. Maybe he’d nibble at one or two of the treats in the bowl while he pondered how to communicate that he’d like something else to the servant. He wandered off out of the kitchen leaving the servant doing whatever she was doing apparently unaware he’d even been in the room.
The ambiguity in the passage is deliberate and will not become clear until later in the story. In this instance, the ambiguity is part of the plot. What is the ambiguity? The only human in the passage is the servant. The old man is actually a cat.
Poetry is often written with a lot of ambiguity. The often terse references leaves the reading seeking the meaning in the poetry.
If you want your reader to know precisely what is happening in a story, you need to write without ambiguity. If you’d like to keep them guessing, write in ambiguity carefully and deliberately.
Now, without ambiguity, I shall head directly off to post this on my blog.
Until Next Time — Just Steem on
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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://idesofmay.com/2019/02/04/wandering-ambiguously-around/
My favorite part of this post.
I always love how you find a way to give meaning to the word of the week for DTO.
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what a woman... 600 words to choose from and you like 3 of them best. LOL
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Cute!
Had me thinking about my dachshund from the first word!
In writing and art, is totally awesome; in government, is totally oppressive, because it's usually used to promote unpopular legislation.
Nice job, @shadowspub!
thank you @jamerussell... it was fun getting the inspiration ... sometimes it comes from the strangest place.
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I had my suspicions the story was about a cat, but I’m glad you clarified. It is fun to guess, so I like ambiguity in stories, but I also like to find out whether my guesses turn out right or wrong. When I am left in ambiguity, well, that’s no fun.
Next time I turn up in a room forgetting why, I will no doubt chuckle and put it down to my ambiguity too.
yeah when the story is completed, the ambiguity will be resolved. And yeah, I seem to get ambiguous all too often at times.
Definetely enjoyed the snippet you shared and hope to read more about the old man and friends soon. Ambiguity in communication feels like one of those with great power comes responsibility things in writing the reader might feel it was wrong to be ambiguous and you tried to "lie" to them, same thing with actually lying in a way. The best ones have a hint of truth when used to direct people away from something concrete thus omission and ambiguity would seem to be the cause and effect.
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likely one of the differences would be that omission is usually deliberate. Often ambiguity is by mistakes like leaving commas out of sentences that make such a difference.
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Greetings dear @shadowspub.
I see that you have a healthy time exploring the flexibilities of the language.
I think there are many "tools" or resources to write. Ambiguity is one of them.
Almost indispensable in poetry.
A good writer can use it with great subtlety to achieve nuances in the plot.
Thank you for bringing us this appreciable delivery today.
All best, Piotr.
hi @crypto.piotr ... yes there are very many literary devices like ambiguity... it will be interesting to explore some of them as part of learning the craft of writing.
Love to see how responsive you are @shadowspub
I'm sorry that it took me so long to read and reply.
Yours
Piotr
read / visited / edited out per @shadowspub direction
@lanceman this is not a good thing to do. Just because you wanted to chat with piotr, you don't drop a comment on someone's post that is not at all relevant to the post and in fact is to promote a post that isn't relevant to this post. That would be considered spam.
I was worried you may get uptight about this (and you would not have noticed had I not kindly mentioned your name to assist...) - but we are all friends here so come on now (really?) I have no other way to reach @crypto.piotr and he directed me to you in the first place. sheesh - I apologive for any interruption and will edit to remove, no longer follow. Thank you for the unfortunate concern good sir.
let's see now.. I wouldn't notice a spammy content on my own post without you mentioning my name @lanceman? Do you actually figure I post and then ignore comments?
If you don't have a post of piotr's that you could leave your comment on then you could have used a wallet memo. That is more appropriate than spamming someone else's content.
So, from your comment you knew what you were doing was inappropriate but you think I'm 'uptight' for pointing out to you what you should not have done in the first place?
That is the sort of behaviour that gets you flags on your comments instead of replies and upvotes. If that is your total interest in the content I have written, posting spammy comments, then yes, please do unfollow.
Piotr's intent is to have you and others find content to follow, not to follow him around and spam people's posts.
Hello @shadowspub, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!
I thoroughly enjoyed that snippet there ....
Is the old man a ghost?
Is the servant a ghost?
Are they both ghosts?
hahaha - or maybe there is a better, more sensible reasoning.
there are no ghosts engaged in the writing of the passage shared. LOL
Lol!
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