"Naturally, the reader has access only to the events I show and the way I show them, but as has been said, there's generally a good deal of ambiguity in that presentation"
About this Quote
The intent is double: it’s craft advice and a preemptive defense. By foregrounding the limits of reader access, Ford disarms the complaint that ambiguity is a flaw or a cheat. He frames it as honest disclosure: you are always navigating an interface, not reality. That’s a quietly radical stance for genre fiction, where audiences are often trained to expect clean rules, clean reveals, and clean payoffs. Ford’s work (across science fiction and fantasy) frequently prizes implication over explanation, trusting readers to assemble meaning from negative space.
The subtext is about power and complicity. The author controls the camera; the reader supplies the inference engine. Ambiguity becomes a handshake between them: a promise that what’s unsaid is part of the experience, and that interpretation isn’t a bug but the point. It also nods to the broader postmodern suspicion of “authoritative” narratives: every account is a viewpoint with blind spots, and the most truthful stories may be the ones that admit their own partiality.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Ford, John M. (2026, January 15). Naturally, the reader has access only to the events I show and the way I show them, but as has been said, there's generally a good deal of ambiguity in that presentation. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/naturally-the-reader-has-access-only-to-the-149677/
Chicago Style
Ford, John M. "Naturally, the reader has access only to the events I show and the way I show them, but as has been said, there's generally a good deal of ambiguity in that presentation." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/naturally-the-reader-has-access-only-to-the-149677/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Naturally, the reader has access only to the events I show and the way I show them, but as has been said, there's generally a good deal of ambiguity in that presentation." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/naturally-the-reader-has-access-only-to-the-149677/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
