What really fascinates me is this need that is so strong now that if you read a work of the imagination you instantly have to say, ’Oh, what this really is is so-and-so ’ reducing it to a simple formula.

Lessing criticizes a modern reflex to “decode” imaginative literature into a single, tidy meaning—an impulse that treats novels and stories as puzzles with one correct solution. Her phrasing suggests impatience with reductive readings (political, psychological, sociological, or biographical) that flatten ambiguity, irony, and multiplicity. The remark defends the autonomy of art: imaginative works can sustain several interpretations at once, and their value often lies in what resists paraphrase. Lessing also hints at a cultural anxiety for certainty and quick categorization, where readers feel compelled to label a work immediately rather than dwell in its complexity and lived experience.