Arcadia Literature and Writing Quotes

While Septimus takes Fermat's note at face value, Thomasina reads between the lines. Perhaps she's reading her own prankster personality into Fermat, or maybe she's right. In any case, she raises the issue of the reliability of texts – we can't know what a person was thinking when they wrote something, whether they were being tricky or truthful. So using writing as evidence requires some critical thinking (just like writing an English paper). This also comes up with Chater's inscription in Septimus's copy of his book (see below).

Does Chater realize the sexual double entendre of his dedication? Given his general stupidity, it seems doubtful. Bernard certainly doesn't get it when he reads the words two centuries later, underlining how important context can be in understanding writing.

This passage juxtaposes an "objective" history (the angel on high who sees everything) with a "subjective" one (the seemingly limited account of life as reflected by bird-killing) to suggest that they are equal. Although, since recording angels don't share their diaries with us down here on earth, the only option we have is to reconstruct the past as best we can through limited records.