Interpretive Reconnaissance
August 17th, 2008 • Comments »
At my place of employment, there is an ongoing safety campaign that solicits monthly safety slogans from employees. To promote the submission of safety slogans, one of the photocopied brochures uses the following blurb to announce its intention:
Let’s Get the Word Out
The remainder of the bulletin then goes on about how to participate and submit your own slogan, the rules, prizes, and blah blah blah. I first noticed this brochure several years ago. It was pinned to the bulletin board in the employee cafeteria in like, 1993 or something and has been there ever since.
One day, while sitting bored to tears in the cafeteria, I began to think about that statement, “Let’s Get the Word Out.” I began thinking about context, intention and perception, and how they relate to that otherwise encouraging statement.
Taken within context, pinned to the cafeteria bulletin board in a blue-collar production facility, the message seems to make enough sense in communicating the author’s original intention: sharing the important message of safety with as many employees as possible by “getting the word out,” as it were.
Yet is this the only way to interpret the slogan? Does every person who reads the statement interpret it in the same, intended way? Fortunately, the remainder of the brochure continues with enough information as to remove any doubt, but those who don’t take the time to read more than the emboldened print may walk away with alternate interpretations.
Thinking about this possibility, I engaged in a bit of “interpretive reconnaissance.” I began interpreting the statement in as many ways as possible, assuming absolutely nothing about the author or the author’s intention. Ignoring all environmental context, I began my semantic exploration by emphasizing different words within the statement:
- Let’s Get the Word Out
- Let’s Get the Word Out
- Let’s Get the Word Out
..and so forth. The results were intriguing. By simply shifting emphasis among words, we change the entire meaning of this otherwise unremarkable slogan. For example, by emphasizing the first word, “let’s,” the phrase implies an importance upon the people responsible for the action. You know, like, “getting the word out is up to us!” Another example involves emphasizing “word,” which heightens the significance of the subject of the task, as in “it is the word that must go out!”
With such changes in emphasis, the statement takes on new meaning and loses its obviousness. Context may still be enough to help readers understand the intended message, however, there is more to interpretation than perceived emphasis and contextual influence. Such technical aspects of communication are a great place to begin a semantic consideration of the statement, but deeper meaning is discovered within the complexities of the unique human observer.
To fathom the different interpretations available to the human mind, it is necessary to consider the experience, consciousness, and beliefs of the observer. While a more exhaustive exploration of this topic is beyond the scope of this article, we are equipped to consider three familiar interpretive paradigms: social, sexual, and spiritual.
To see an example of how human experience may be involved in the interpretation of the slogan from a social perspective, let’s assume an observer that is experiencing strong feelings of societal detachment and resentment. Perhaps such an individual was recently terminated from a job, or rejected by the Elk’s Lodge or something sad like that. In such a case, the disgruntled observer may read the statement with an emphasis on the word “Out:”
Let’s Get the Word Out
As if the author of the message intends to mock those on the “outside” of some social group by saying, “Hey, here’s a word for you, loser: out.” Elaborating, “Let’s all understand something here, the word of the day is ‘out’.” This interpretive scenario may seem like a stretch until you assume the mental condition and cumulative experience of someone who is fixated on being an outcast.
A similar interpretation may be seen from a sexually influenced perspective. Assuming an observer preoccupied by the slogans and terminology associated with gay culture, we arrive at an interpretation advocating the homosexual lifestyle. Using the word “get” in the sense of understanding or receiving something, we have a statement that encourages the observer to “get” the word “out.” Here, the word “out” is interpreted in the sense of “coming out of the closet.” You know, “Let’s Get the Word Out.
Finally, looking at the slogan from a spiritual perspective, we begin by defining an observer preoccupied with religious experience, language, and symbolism. In the Bible, God refers to Jesus Christ as “The Word” 1:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. — John 1:1
Thus, given an observer that embraces this concept, an interpretation of the phrase becomes:
Let’s Get The Word Out
..which itself may be taken several ways, depending on where you are at spiritually. To our hypothesized observer, the object of this statement becomes the living Word of God, which the author of the slogan advises the reader to either share and distribute or eradicate and eliminate, again depending on perspective.
Taking this even further, if the observer were to be obeying the scriptures and actively looking for Christ at His Second Coming 2, the statement could prove quite enlightening when interpreted as:
Let us understand that Jesus Christ has returned
This may be unfathomable to some, but to a select few, it couldn’t be clearer.