The Critic's Prison and a Way Out

The Critic's Prison is the constriction caused by trying to say what someone meant This is prevalent in the analysis of Bob Dylan songs Long blocks of text that surmise what the man means
How about what it means to you How you understand it Freedom
The Critic's Prison is presuming to interpret the creator to explain what the creator had in mind What would be gained  Does the artist know
Masses of so-called criticism and scholarship would be spared existence merely by confining analysis and criticism to Your understanding your appreciation your sense of it
The rest is the judgment Jesus warns us against The rest is Critic's Prison the prevalent status of a vast amount of discourse

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes