ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Indeterminacy (literature)

Indeterminacy in literature means that a story or a text leaves some things unclear or open to interpretation. It's like when you see a picture and you're not exactly sure what's happening in it, but you can make your own guesses based on what you see.

When an author writes a book or a story with indeterminacy, they intentionally leave some parts of the story open to different possibilities. This means that different people can interpret the story in different ways, and there's no one "correct" answer. It's like a choose-your-own-adventure story, where you get to decide what happens next.

This can make reading more fun and interesting, because you get to use your imagination and think about what different parts of the story might mean. But it can also be a little confusing, because you might not know for sure what the author meant to say.