26th February 2015, 1:10 PM
Quote:I mean, what exactly do we get out of the notion that the stone tower is the tower of babel? There's no indication that Link is being punished for getting too close to the gods, or any weird language stuff (all the nearby ghosts speak perfect Engrish). Even if there's a few parallels, it's not enough unless it actually adds something to the narrative.
That theory is its own reward. :D If you want to dig deep into a game find its meaning, its objective meaning mind, then yes. You would take the Tower of Babel or other bibical allegory and compare it to the rest of the game, seeking other evidence to support it. If there are contradictions or a lack of a coherent picture, you could use that to refute the theory.
On the other hand, I don't prefer to be so rigid. Looking at the aesthetic of the Stone temple and linking it to a story of hubris, blasphemy, and vengeful gods, is interesting in its own right. Perhaps Link himself doesn't show hubris towards the gods, but the idea that Hyrulian ancestors had made this mistake is interesting. The more you can find to support the idea, the more compelling the thought. "The Stone Tower was first flipped upside down so that the builders would reach hell instead of heaven!" Whoa!
Quote:(I also don't subscribe to the notion that the whole game is supposed to be Link's death. The developers themselves debunked that one.)
I contend the idea that a game or any piece of art has only one meaning. Even taking authorial intent into account. Art isn't a mathematical function, one input and one output. It's more like, one experience is one individual meaning. Parenthetically, I say "experience" and not "person", because even your age can make your reaction vary. Ebert wrote a good article about a movie he watched at 3 different stages in his life, and how he got something different each time.
The more each experience between individuals lines up, the more competent/coherent the art. I prefer the school of thought that once an artist exhibits a piece of art (especially en masse), it takes on a life of its own. Deciphering the meaning doesn't require just authorial intent, but three things:
1) Authorial intent: Yes, okay, kind of hard to avoid this.
2) Individual interpretation: e.g. "300 is a movie where a bunch of anglosized manly men go kick the shit out of effeminite Persian shits. It serves as a propaganda piece for the Iraq war."
3) Collective interpretation: Just a pool of number #2, so maybe that is a subset of #3. Not just, what does it mean to one person, but what does it mean to society?
Art (such as painting/writing) that is a product of one person is more coherent. You can look at the artist's life, age, environment, etc. and gain traction that way. Guernica, painted by Picasso, is about devastation and war crimes. But collaborations will produce a little bit of input from many different people. It's hard to keep intent + meaning straight in something so complex, it's like a cacaphony. At that point, it's prudent to look at the final product to derive a holistic meaning, rather than a sum of individual parts.
Consequently, that also makes it more fun to discuss. :)
The only time I don't like reading about subtext is if it's uninspired. I once read on a message board some dope who said "Ferris Bueller's Day Off is about Cameron, the protagonist, and Ferris Bueller is his Tyler Durden-like imaginary friend! Cameron wants to be cool, just like him!" Booorriiing. And preposterous. I don't like "It's all in their head!" interpretations, it's like shooting fish in a barrel.
I will make an exception for Majora's Mask being about Link's death, though, I think that's a neat idea too and consistent with the tone. Perhaps I should clarify that when evaluating a piece, instead of taking two theories -- "Link visits the Tower of Babel because he heard about it in his life and now that he's dying, his tormented sees fit to reconstruct it and explore it!" -- I like to meditate upon them individually. So maybe it's easier to compartmentalize and not try to keep everything "cannon".