Snape, Sadism, and Authorial Intent

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 186649

> > Steve:
> > But if you have so little respect for authors that you consider your own personal opinions on their published material as superior to what they say, then I'm sorry, I just can't understand that way of thinking. 
> 
> Zara:
> Since, as I admitted, I do write fanfiction...I should point out this is a strong influence on my opinion in this matter. Reviewers of my stories have noticed things in them that I never intended. Symbolic meanings for incidents I added for other reasons, double meanings that had not occured to me, etc. Should I tell them they are wrong, when the meanings are quite clearly based upon things that are there in my story? Of course not. They are right, the text contains those things they see in it, even though I did not consciously intend to include them.

Magpie:
Whether a character is good or bad or a sadist or whatever is subjective anyway. If we are supposed to listen to the author on everything, do we have to take on opinions of other time periods or cultures whenever we read a book? We do that all the time. There's probably plenty of opinions about characters that people now think are obviously what's written that are different from the way the author might have seen it in their own time and culture.

Not that it doesn't also apply to modern authors, though. I just read a book where I'm sure the author would consider it canon that the main characters were a sympathetic couple in love and I thought they were a couple of self-obsessed twits. I still consider my opinion correct. But if it came to a fact about the text then yeah, I'd want to go by what's actually written there, but nobody reads books with the author next to them telling them what to think about the characters. In fact when I feel like the author's telling me that I'm more likely to feel the opposite and just feel like the reality of the story's been compromised.

-m