Now, this has been on my mind ever since my English teacher had a full-blown class discussion on MEANING, and where it lies. Does meaning lie in the item whose meaning is to be interpreted, or in the person or thing that interprets it?

Meaning, in the way that my English teacher went about talking about it, was that meaning is all in the interpreter. For example, if everyone in the world was dead, would a book have meaning anymore? Teacher says no, though other people may believe differently. In that sense, I related it to the Schrödinger's cat experiment ([link]). The interpreter makes the reality, sense or meaning.

Here's my take on it.

Meaning is in both the item to be interpreted, and the interpreter.

For example of the meaning being in the item, the books left on an Earth with no people would still have meaning, because I believe that meaning and purpose are different. The books would no longer have purpose because it's original purpose, to be read, is no longer a possibility with the humans all dead. However, they can get a new purpose, for example, as something to munch on for a rabbit.

The meaning in the books are still quite intact though, as the words and meaning are still in the books, like they have always been; just no one is now able to decipher those meanings.

Meaning also lies within the interpreter. For example, one person who reads the statement "The curtains are blue." may go into some foolishly sentimental reasoning about how the writer of that statement is trying to express their thoughts on life, and how there is a veil of sadness obscuring their view through the window of life. Another person (and probably this is more common), would just interpret that as "The curtains are the colour blue."

Now, with my take on meaning, in relations to the Schrödinger's cat experiment, it would mean that the cat in the experiment is either dead or alive. The person's realization of the cat's state of being is in no way whatsoever affecting of the fact that the cat is either dead or alive.

But hey, this is just all my interpretation of meaning, and according to my own interpretation, you as a reader can interpret this in any sense you want, which gives the possibility that your interpretation controverses mine. And  if that were to happen, wouldn't that make all of the above a lie?

So if you actually read the whole wall of text up there, then kudos to you! Your patience knows no limits…

_{Haha, so I posted this on my Tumblr earlier today before I left for something, and now I decided to post it on dA =u=b
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Yes, this is the type of thing I usually think about when I have nothing to do}