What do the brackets mean in x86 asm?

Question

Given the following code:

L1     db    \"word\", 0

       mov   al, [L1]
       mov   eax, L1

What do the brackets ([L1]) represent?

Answer 1

Simply means to get the memory at the address marked by the label L1.

If you like C, then think of it like this: [L1] is the same as *L1