[HPFGU-Movie] Re: POA - Movie Review - Does Contain Spoilers

[Diana Williams]

> Carolyn:
>
> As a writer yourself I understand you may have strong views on this,
> but IMO a reader/viewer's interpretation of what they are presented
> with is just as valid as the creator's. The genie is really out of
> the bottle once a work is made public. Authorial intent is
> interesting to know about, but becomes just part of the jigsaw that
> adds up to an ongoing response to a particular work (which can change
> over time).

<nodding>  This is very true.  For example, when I was in high school here
in the US, we read and analyzed in depth all the layers to Hemingway's "The
Old Man and the Sea", how it symbolized so many things, was an allegory
about Jesus, among other things, etc.  And then I read an interview where
Hemingway was asked about the symbolic meaning of the story and he had
shrugged and said, "It's just a story about a man and a fish."  Now, I think
he was being a little disingenuous about that and expect that he was writing
about man vs the elements, but did he mean to put all the other symbolism
into it?  Did Melville or Coleridge intend their stories to be so full of
symbolism and deep layers, or were they just writing rollicking sea stories?
Is that something that we, the reader, have interpreted into the story,
based on our own feelings and lives?  I know that even as a fanfiction
writer, I get emails saying they liked this symbolism or that parallel - a
lot of times I didn't consciously write that and don't see it myself until
it is pointed out, but that doesn't make my readers' opinions and
interpretations any less valid.

Diana W.