Literary Depth
Layers in literature Texts can be seen as having layers. From low to high these layers comprise The physical medium - atoms, molecules, chemicals (screen/paper). Note that these can change while level 2 remains the same (or at least irrelevantly different) to the reader, just as chessplayers rarely care whether the pieces are resin or wood. Letters - fonts, color and the quality of the handwriting can matter Units of meaning - words, phrases, sentences or lines. In a piece like Finnegan's Wake the letter->word phase is non-trivial Interpretation - which in turn is multi-level Reading through layers Upper layers can have emergent features absent from lower ones (and vice versa). For example Emotions only exist at higher levels A story full of jokes can be sad Interpretation is not a straightforward progression from lowest to highest level. A higher level interpretation can provoke a re-interpretation of a lower level. Often the lower levels (the choice of font, color...