On authors and their own work

[girlyswot]

I came across this in an article I was reading this morning and thought it had some relevance to the 'JKR's word as canon' debate.

I am inclined to agree with C. S. Lewis who commented on his own book, Till We Have Faces, : "An author doesn't necessarily understand the meaning of his own story better than anyone else..." The act of creation confers no special privileges on authors when it comes to the distinctly different, if lesser, task of interpretation. Wordsworth the critic is not in the same league with Wordsworth the poet, while Samuel Johnson the critic towers over Johnson the creative artist. Authors obviously have something in mind when they write, but a work of historical or theological or aesthetic imagination has a life of its own.

Comments

[amamama.livejournal.com]

Now this is very interesting, and I heartliy agree. Because I disagree very much completely with those who claims all JKR says is law. 'tis not. Her books are law. Interviews and such can be used for interpretation, but is not law. Who knows, if Mary had interviewed her, and argued against Harry becoming an auror and for his becoming a life saver instead, maybe they'd agreed. Maybe JKR would've changed her mind, and found Mary to be correct. I think so. But then again, that's my not at all humble opinion.

[girlspell.livejournal.com]

Hee hee...you might be opening up a can of worms. I read recently that the Harmony shippers are not about to give up. They claim (now) that epilogue means nothing. Harry & Ginny might be married, but Ginny is cheating on him with Draco (Scorpio is their son) Harry's children on the other hand are the offspring of him and Hermione. Poor Ron has no clue...

They pass the time trying to interpret eveything, I mean everything that comes out of JKR's mouth for their ship.

[amamama.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well - I sort of wish she hadn't written that epilogue as detailed as she did. I wish there'd been more room for interpretation (mainly because I'm still mourning the loss of RtB, I'm so sad it ended up in the drawer), but seriously - Harry/Hermione? Only if Ginny and Ron both dies, in my opinion. Which could happen, but I don't really care. I'm quite happy with R/Hr and H/G. I've found that ships matter less than happiness. I want them to be happy, with whom is not so important (as I love Jeconais' writing exercises where he wrote loads of ficlets pairing Harry with most everyone, but the point is that he's a good writer, and Harry's happy). It might be because I've never written fanfiction that I'm not so emotionally invested in one specific ship. Don't know. That said, I've never managed to read slashfic with Harry, as he's as straight as they come imo. I hope I don't open a can of worms, but then I don't spend much time in fandom doing more than reading anymore (I've long since abandoned the discussions at the Quill). I read fics and enjoy them, arguing for a lost case is something I don't care about. So Ginny doesn't cheat on Harry (With Draco? Get real...), Scorpius is Dracos son with his wife (whoever that is), harry is not cheating with Hermione, and Ron loves his wife very much, thank you. And vice versa. They do have a clear moral compass that they follow, imo.

[girlspell.livejournal.com]

As for Ron and Hermione..ahh. They (Harmony) says NO WHERE in the epilouge (crapilouge they call it) says that Ron and Hemione are married. It gets weirder and sigh....

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Actually, RtB is completely epilogue compliant. Just not stupid-and-inconsistent-interview compliant.

[amamama.livejournal.com]

*grins* Didn't remember that, but you're right. Then's the question - how to convince Mary her version is loads better than JKR-in-interview? And of course, that's why the idea that Mary should've interviewed JKR had lodged itself in my brain. I'm sure she'd be able to counter her and get her to see reason. Cuz of all the people I've met who've seen war and had their childhoods torn apart by it, none have chosen a career similar to being auror. They've become politically active, and/or had a burning desire to help and make a difference.