30th June 2008, 5:43 AM
Of course, then you get people who, in spite of all an author's protesting (What do they know? I know Freud!), insist they have the true SYMBOLIC meaning behind something that was intended to be read straight and not as allegory to anything.
Quote:Memories of that overzealous English teacher who forced you to accept that every character, every scene, and every action had a deep inner meaning have led to widespread fear on the part of readers and viewers everywhere that every tale secretly contains some other story being told in subtext.
The end result of this is a state of mind that, for example, interprets every plot as an allegory for the afterlife and every protagonist as a stand-in for the Christ: Everyone Is Jesus In Purgatory!
Rampant paranoia results from this state; one cannot look at anything without being suspicious that this is some kind of allegory brainwashing you into learning An Aesop against your will. Is that box of Ding-Dongs one character is handing another a mere confection, or is it a blessing from On High, manna sent from a merciful God? Or wait... it could be a Deal With The Devil; short-term pleasure resulting in permanent bodily ruination! What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic?
The concept of "the Death of the Author" hasn't particularly helped this state of affairs, either, as it allows everyone to insist that their pet theories are entirely valid (with or without justification), regardless of how many times the author of the text states his or her intentions in writing the work, or, as in many cases, that the pet theory absolutely isn't the state of affairs at all.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)