And the thing is? A lot of the time that is true. Barbie is a currently famous example of "what you meant" being so incongruent with "what we got from it" that it basically has buried the original intent.
The issue being, when you try to wield your reading as a weapon to either change the work or present your view as the only possible reading. Something most people who consume product heavily of any kind are guilty of.
It would be nice if Death of the Author actually waited for the author to meet death, though. Oftentimes people are arguing directly at the author, proclaiming their work means something completely different to the author themselves.
"What I get out of this story as is relates to my life" is a very different statement than "This is what the author meant in this story", too. Objectively, in example, the Barbie movie is feminist dross. But subjectively, many audiences found the struggle of Ken to be important or symbolic in some way while to the author he had no value beyond being fanservice. Both these things can exist side by side. "The author meant to do this thing, but the portrayal, to me, showcases instead this other thing".
Death of the Author has been one of the worst creations of modern philosophy and art, and it is over a century old.
A friend of mine once relayed an anecdote about a story he'd written involving a guy getting magically turned into a girl, anatomy and all.
Magically. That's the operative word. Not hormones or surgery or whatever. Magic.
And then a tranny in his chat group got all hissy, saying it made him "not valid."
Went on and on and on about death-of-the-author.
"It doesn't matter what you meant. Only what the readers think matters."
And the thing is? A lot of the time that is true. Barbie is a currently famous example of "what you meant" being so incongruent with "what we got from it" that it basically has buried the original intent.
The issue being, when you try to wield your reading as a weapon to either change the work or present your view as the only possible reading. Something most people who consume product heavily of any kind are guilty of.
It would be nice if Death of the Author actually waited for the author to meet death, though. Oftentimes people are arguing directly at the author, proclaiming their work means something completely different to the author themselves.
"What I get out of this story as is relates to my life" is a very different statement than "This is what the author meant in this story", too. Objectively, in example, the Barbie movie is feminist dross. But subjectively, many audiences found the struggle of Ken to be important or symbolic in some way while to the author he had no value beyond being fanservice. Both these things can exist side by side. "The author meant to do this thing, but the portrayal, to me, showcases instead this other thing".