Hermeneutics

How to read?

How to interpret?

Hermeneutics is firmly linked to biblical studies but anybody can apply the procedures to any text.

There was a fascinating interview with Alan Garner on BBC Radio Four recently. John Waite brought the author (or it could have been the other way round) on a quest for the Weirdstone of Brisingamen, one of the most frightening books ever written. So frightening that many readers give up in panic and do not make it to the end, where harmony is restored. If that happens, Alan Garne admits that, as a writer, he has failed.

What is the use of a book without readers?

In my case, if Mr Garner is correct, the later James Joyce is a singular failure.
For years I approached "Ulysses" as a shy nag might who is trying its damndest to get over Becher's Brook. It said nothing to me, which is remarkable given the exraordinary virtuosity of its extreme wordiness and the barrage of exegesis that has followed in its wake. On some centenary during weeks that now seem a hundred years ago, the finest Abbey actors tried to make it more accessible by reading the complete work aloud on radio.

I had to keep turning it off.

It made me feel dizzy.