Foreword, when is a homeland not a homeland?

[Paul Nightingale]

s~Z wrote:

> 
> There is no way to know the answer to this question.
> My reading requires zero speculation, so I prefer to
> see the passage as a general statement about the
> dynamics of war time. No unanswerable questions
> need arise.
>

That casual use of "zero speculation" indicates that you can read
without thinking. The Truth just leaps off the page with no effort on
your part required. I disagree: if you adopt that approach all the time
it must limit your reading matter severely. To read is to speculate. One
definition of good writing is the degree to which the reader must
speculate to draw out a range of possible meanings. But I was
forgetting: you prefer to read chocolate bar wrappers.

In fact, you then go on to say you "prefer" to read the passage in a
particular way, which indicates that some thinking has taken place and
you have made a decision, consciously or otherwise, to reject one
reading in favour of another.