Another fun question from the Writer’s Coffee Club tag that I couldn’t answer in three hundred or so words on Mastodon: Writer’s Coffee Club 12.6 Is it the reader’s/critic’s interpretation or the author’s? Would you fight an author’s opinion? My answer: I have no idea of what “fight” means in this context. The canon of a story is extremely important. The reader/critic’s reaction and interaction to the canon of the story is equally important.
I am going to need to expand on this a little. I still have no idea what the question means by “fighting” an author’s opinion. Does it mean literally arguing about something that author got wrong? Does it mean reading something else in the story that the writer did not include, or did not realize they included? (Yes the latter can happen. There has been Drama due to certain writers not realizing that they wrote something was informed by their biases in such a way that it was extremely offensive. And no, they had no idea there was a problem until someone pointed it out.) Does it mean disagreeing with whatever underlying point the writer is trying to make with their work? Is it all of the above?
It should be noted here that a lot of my interaction with a story’s canon is subjecting it to various kinds of scrutiny and poking at it in different ways. A lot of my early attempts at writing were actually something like fan fic, though generally as a kid I’d get into huge trouble for doing it. (So many lectures on plagiarism. So. Many.) I feel that the it’s important to not just read and be entertained by the story, but also to engage with it, interact with it, turn it around and speculate about it. When I read, I also analyze and try to figure out what the writer was trying to say. It’s my general feeling that a writer is always trying to say something, even if that something turns out to be, “I have no idea of what I’m talking about because my perception of reality is vastly different than anyone with common sense.”
It is more than possible for a writer to have a bad take. (I can think of a number of writers who I feel have Extremely Bad Takes about everything from human nature to politics.) It is also equally possible for the reader to have a bad take. (I have seen reviews for certain books on Goodreads where I am not convinced the reviewer actually read the same book I did.) I am not sure however that the Having of Bad Takes on either side qualifies the situation as a fight.
I feel that canon of the story is of equal importance to the reader’s reaction to that canon, whatever the reaction might be. (And whether or not the take is accurate or not.) I also feel that this is less an “argument” than it is a conversation. (Though admittedly the biases of the writer or the reader is going to make it a very, very loud conversation.) The reader’s interpretations is going to be based of their own opinions and biases, much the way that the canon material is based on the opinions and biases of the writer. This interaction is very important to the reading experience because you are, in a way, learning how the writer thinks. (Or at least, how the writer thinks people think.)
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