> The proper term for those whom the author describes is subliterate.

Indeed, literacy is is the ability to read, and reading is interpretation. Interpretation requires context - of the domain, the culture, and the text - and resolving possible competing interpretations using a combination of charity and probability. Even the concept of "literal meaning" is problematic, because words don't mean anything by themselves; they requires disambiguation and contextual resolution of meaning. So really all you can have are more or less competent readings.

Pedantry is, therefore, arguably subliterate.