What is the most ambiguous book you know and why?

Answer 1

Ulysses - James Joyce

Because it's stream-of-consciousness.

Answer 2

I agree with the idea that the Christian Bible, judging by the many and varied interpretations that have emerged over the last 2000 years, qualifies as a book of debated meaning (note: debated, *not* debatable). I don't know if that qualifies as ambiguous, though. It's clear each passage has a meaning—the argument's more about how, specifically, to apply the meanings to one's life (or to force others to apply these meanings to their lives). That's where the ambiguity comes in: on the 'user end,' if you will, more than from the text itself. Even the writer of Revelations, perhaps the most contested book in the collection, clearly has a specific message in mind; it's the efforts of his readers to *apply* his writings in terms of prophecy that creates the actual ambiguity.

If you're looking for ambiguity of meaning in the writing itself, I suggest you look to poetry, particularly, but not exclusively, to Modern poetry. If you must have a book, try T.S. Elliot's 'The Waste Land'. However, for sheer ambiguity, I think Elliot's poem 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' wins hands down, although it was never published as a book unto itself.

Consider these lines from 'Prufrock':

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.

What does it mean? Nobody really knows, and, to some extent, I believe they are not intended to know. Instead, I think the lines (and the entire poem) are intended to inspire a different meaning for each reader each time he reads it. I say this because it is clear to anyone who reads this poem that it has a specific meaning, but the meaning changes from reader to reader and even from reading to reading. *That's* ambiguity.

If anyone tells you claim he *does* know what this absolutely means, then tell him 'do pull you the other one, for it has got bells upon it.' At the same time, there are many, many scholars who maintain that this passage does have a meaning: we just know not what, exactly. However, what Elliot *may* mean is...(scholar launches pet theory).

It should be noted that Elliot's critics at one time claimed that his poetry was not poetry at all. So even the form of these works is somewhat ambiguous.

Others may disagree with me on my specific choices, but I think that if you're looking for ambiguity of meaning, poetry can't be beat. If you don't like Elliot, you might try Gary Snyder, Ishmael Reed, or Ted Hughes, or even William Shakespeare's sonnets.

Of course, if you seek unintentional ambiguity (at least I think it's unintentional), try Mikhail Bakhtin's The Dialogic Imagination. Now let me get a head start before his fevered, frantic fans get their torches lit.

Answer 3

'To the lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf. She tries to capture all the thoughts that fly through her characters' minds as they interact with one another. If you read only the first 2 pages you will get the general idea. However, its meaning could well be described as ambiguous because it doesn't have a plot and the reader is often unsure as to what is happening.

Answer 4

Nostradamus' prophesies and the babble of the bible (aka Goat Herders' Guide to the Galaxy).

Both books have been said to have made sense in modern times when various happenings fit like a square 1" x 1" jigsaw piece any place you want to fit it.

Both books have been very successful in 'predicting the past' - neither has ever had any success in predicting the future.
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Answer 5

A Disaffection, by James Kelman.
You never get to know the main character fully, only glimpses of what might be. In this sense the novel mirrors our own existence. It's a great great novel.

Answer 6

I suppose I'd have to say the Bible, since there have been (and likely will continue to be) so many different interpretations of what is actually means - some of them even mutually exclusive.

Answer 7

well animal farm intentionally.
any book by franz kafka is insane and has multiple meanings

Answer 8

I´m from Germany and my favourite book is Johnny Rottens biography ,,No irish, no blacks, no dogs´´!It has a big influence of me.It`s my bible
Sorry my English is bad

Answer 9

'Alchemist' Paulo Coelho

Answer 10

easy - animal farm