"Assumption makes a you know what out of you and me."

Keesey makes a point that I have often wondered myself in the introduction to using the author as context.  "Not only are writers notoriously inclined to be reticent, evasive, or even deceptive when discussing the "meaning" of their works, but they are seldom in a position to know what they may have unconsciously intended..." (9).  Often times I have written something in a journal or in a blog that was just a jumble of unconscious thoughts that I really didn't have a specific meaning or direction for.  If I don't know what I am writing means, how would anyone else be able to interpret my meaning correctly?  I am sure that it has happened to every author at one time or another.   They wrote something when they were happy or sad that described the way that they felt right at that second.  It is possible that they may never feel that way again, or be able to describe what made them write the way that they do. 

As Keesey continues on page 13, we as readers make a lot of assumptions about what an author "means."  I was always taught that making assumptions could never be a good thing.  Decisions based on anything other than facts could always presumably lead to an incorrect reading. 

Finally Keesey makes a good point towards the end of the introduction that most authors do not write to set tradition or to become history.  It is unlikely that Shakespeare sat at a desk and thought "In 500 years this is going to be read as history so I better make sure it is good."  Authors write for the present.  It doesn't become the past until time has passed.