“There are no facts; only interpretations” is a famous quote by Friedrich Nietzsche.

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“There are no facts; only interpretations” is a famous quote by Friedrich Nietzsche. Based on the statement, facts do not count in a text, but the understanding relies on a person’s interpretations. Poor interpretations may lead to less understanding of the text, and thus for a person to get better insight; they are required to have a better interpretation of the text. Various ways can be used to interpret a text and thus aid in understanding. Some of the most commonly used ways of understanding text include the use of topic knowledge, and the other one is the use of general world knowledge.

Topic knowledge refers to the use of the provided headline in the film or other text to get a better understanding of the film, and thus, it is the understanding that results from the topic under study. For a person to be able to understand even the slightest detail from the text, they must have some familiarity with the topic, either partially of complete exposure. Topic knowledge, therefore, relates to a particular context that a person wants to engage. In a film, to get a better understanding, it is important that one starts from the introduction to make sure that they have captured the introduction details that include the cast and as well the topic or headline. It is through this headline that the viewer will be able to narrow their mind into that particular topic, which will help in the understanding of the text as it will be much easier to interpret.

General world knowledge is the other way that a person can use to get a better understanding of the text. It refers to the experience that a person has and thus brings along to any learning situation. General knowledge provides the background which acts as a hook to hang new information. Through the use of general knowledge, an individual is able to bring or infer meaning to something that was previously vague and did not have any sense of familiarity to them. In a text such a film, a person can understand the content through inferring the meaning from a previously acquired knowledge that helps them have a better interpretation and the consequent understanding of the text. General knowledge is therefore essential in determining how well a person can understand the text through application of the past experiences in the same field.

The two methods of understanding a text differ in various ways despite having the common objective of coming out with a reliable meaning from the text. Topic knowledge can be learned from the text being studied. For example, while watching move, it must have some introductions where the heading will be presented. Basing from the header, the rest of the film body is based on the topic and therefore, to have a better understanding, one has to get the topic first. Failure to understand the topic will lead to a poor understanding of the film due to loose interpretation that results from poor connections between the text body and header.

On the other hand, general knowledge adds to the topic knowledge. Having a prior understanding of a topic or a more general understanding of the topic makes it easier to connect between the texts and apply to the real-life situations, making interpretation less complicated than having no previous knowledge which has the implication of fast understanding. The main difference, therefore, between general knowledge and topic knowledge in the context of interpretation and understanding is the range of information that a person has prior to exposure of the text. General world knowledge creates a pool of information that is easy to apply and interpret in the text, making it easy to understand.