How do we read ... ?

[Rob Jackson]

 From Wikipedia

[...] A far more straightforward interpretation of the rhyme is that  
it is a cautionary warning intended to suggest that children caught  
engaging in incestuous activity (going "up the hill" with the  
intention to do something besides "fetch a pail of water") will be  
dealt with very severely. In the rhyme, Jack and Jill "fall down" not  
at the same time but one after the other, with no cause specified --  
the implication being that they were "caught in the act," then broken  
up and punished by being thrown down the hill by their angry,  
disapproving father. Subsequent verses suggest that boys and girls who  
do what Jack and Jill did will or should not only be punished but also  
be mocked for their inappropriate, forbidden behaviour as well. [...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_Jill_(song)

This makes a lot more sense when you consider the context (c. 18th  
century England), audience (small children) and purpose (a nursery  
rhyme is or was generally designed to contain an instructive or  
entertaining moral lesson).

But the key word here seems to be "interpretation", a term which  
doesn't figure at all in Alice's post.

Is there a difference between a "reading" and an "interpretation"?

And, can we not also consider Pynchon's texts as "readings" and/or  
"interpretations" of other texts, whether Reed's Mumbo Jumbo, the  
hidden history of the CIA, various genre fiction modes, the 'Broken  
Estate' of American literature, or the practice of occultism?

all the best