Subtext are the labels we attach to substance, our opinions, our feelings and thoughts that we associate with substances around us. For instance, the chair (substance) may be refered to as a comfy lounge chair, or that ugly dump your husband insists on having that you can't wait to get rid of (and believe me you have tried spilling drinks on it, giving it a good beating in the hope the leather would split, all to no avail!). They both are the same substances, both are chairs, but we choose to see them differently based on their merits or demerits as seen by us.
We do they same with people, give them subtexts based on our associations with them. We label them and choose to talk about them entirely in subtexts because thats how we see them- completely ignoring or oblivious to the fact that it is really only our opinion of them, which incidently, could be uninformed, misplaced or misjudged. And why do we do that? Because its infinitely more interesting, makes for a good narrative. We also do it because we don't want to acknowledge the substance behind the subtext, the substance perhaps is no diffrenet from us, its too close to home and that makes us a tad uncomfortable. Its easier to hide behind subtexts then to acknowledge the substance. But we do need to know where to draw the line on subtexts or to atleast attempt to understand the difference. Was it Democritus who said, " All that exists is atoms and space, eveything else is opinion"? I couldn't agree more.
And talking of chairs, here's a few not-so-conventional ones!
