Interpretation is a voluntary offering, not compulsion, instruction, or news
Evidence
It is not instruction. It is not avowed information, though it carries information with it. It is not forced upon anyone. Take it or leave it. If one takes it, one has it in many forms, the ideal being to make each form as attractive as possible—the guided trip, the marked trail, the campfire gathering, the slide talk, the motion picture, the exhibits and printed matter. — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 670
Categorization
- DEFINE: Negative definition of interpretation: what it is not — voluntary, attractive, non-compulsory.
- XREF: connects to: Interpretation’s business is provoking desire to know, not instructing — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 675; Interpretation exposes the soul of things, never sermonizes — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 296; Interpretation reveals meanings rather than simply communicating facts — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 69 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Interpretation provokes self-action in the listener rather than instructing him
#corroborates(0.95) — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 633 - Interpretation reveals meanings rather than simply communicating facts
#corroborates(0.85) — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 69 - Reputation interpretation depends on the interpreter, not the reputation holder.
#expands(0.75) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 607 - Transindividual structures, not authorial intention, anchor strong interpretation today.
#qualifies(0.72) - Interpretation is a tool for use built on coherence without theoretical adequacy
#qualifies(0.72) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 365