Why authors write between the lines

German-American philosopher Leo Strauss wrote a fascinating essay called Persecution and the Art of Writing. In the essay, he tackles the fundamental problem of political speech: how to write the truth without being guillotined by the powers that be? His answer👇👇👇

Socrates was poisoned for "corrupting the minds of the young," and history records many such examples. How to pursue free inquiry and state one's truth without being similarly poisoned? The Straussian answer: write between the lines.

Such "esoteric writing" uses suggestion and allusion to convey a message that is not for all ears. It conveys important ideas in indirect ways and involves cleverness on the part of the reader as much as the author.

On the benefits of esoteric writing: “It has all the advantages of a private conversation without its greatest disadvantage—that it reaches only acquaintances. It has all the advantages of public communication without its greatest disadvantage—capital punishment of the author."

Won't the censors notice? If intelligent readers can read between the lines, can't the censors too? No, as censors are hired for their unquestioning loyalty to regime orthodoxies, not for their critical thinking. By design, esoteric writing only reaches those its meant for.

How to notice esoteric writing? Was the text composed at a time when "some political or other orthodoxy was enforced by law or custom"? If yes, then see if the writer, knowing the "orthodox view," contradicts one of its "presuppositions or conclusions" fleetingly. That's a hint.

Study the villains. To escape persecution, ancient writers may have put their most consensus-defying and heterodox views in the mouths of their villains. This would explain so many "interesting devils, madmen, beggars, sophists, drunkards, and buffoons" in great past literature.

Writers in the past believed "there are basic truths which would do harm to many people." This made them use an esoteric mode of delivery where the actual message was hidden but discoverable for enterprising thinkers, while the masses stuck to the literal interpretation.

Ancient writers believed "the gulf separating the wise and the vulgar" was not bridgeable through any amount of education. Esoteric writing was thus a necessity that would never be eliminated in any age, no matter how enlightened.

Bottom line. To escape both persecution and the potential social harm of unpleasant truths, writers across ages inserted esoteric messages in their texts. These messages are discoverable through a close reading - and rereading - of their texts.