One
of the books I had to read in high school was Lord of the Flies. I did not
care for it. In college I was talking to
one of my friends and he said that he loved the book. I started talking about how I didn’t like it
for the, was it Simon as Jesus bit, and my friend was like, “What are you
talking about?” Turns out the interpretation of the book my English teacher had
wasn’t the only one.
A
few years later, I read The Metamorphosis
which I found … different. Anyway, the
copy I had had at the end these essays about the story. One went into great detail about this one
scene – which I had likely forgotten – where the poor guy’s dad throws a couple
of apples at him. The author of the
essay went on and on what the apples – being from the Garden of Eden –
represented and how there were two of them, which naturally meant testicles and
symbolic castration and whatnot.
Every
now and then I’ll see something on Twitter or Facebook where it has, “What the
author wrote: The curtains were blue.” And then it has a paragraph each on what
Groups X, Y, and Z interpret that to mean.
And then it ends with, “What the author actually meant: The curtains
were blue.”
I
was thinking about all this recently because of The Last Jedi. I’ve read and
watched some reviews of people who loved the movie, and some who hated the
movie. One thing I noticed about both is
that often the reasons for why they loved or hated the movie usually stemmed
from a sort of reading between the lines.
It wasn’t because of a specific scene in the movie, but the person’s interpretation
of that scene. For example, the scene
where Holdo doesn’t tell her plan to Poe.
Some see it as why should an admiral have to answer to this hothead, but
others see it as since she is being secretive that justifies Poe’s
actions. It’s like one time in college –
back before the prequels – where a friend wrote a paper on the philosophy in Star Wars. I jokingly told him that he should write
another paper arguing for the opposite of what he had in the first paper, but
still use examples from Star Wars. He thought for a moment, then said, “I could
probably do that.”
So
what does all this mean for writers? No
matter what deeper meaning you write into your stories, people will find
others. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t
write deeper meanings into your stories, just realize that no matter how much
time and effort you put into your work, someone will see something you never
thought of.
I’m
working on a fantasy story. When I
started it, it was just a fun exploration of this world. But as I figured out the ending, I realized
that the way I was going it was about nuclear terrorism. (Basically, there’s a magic “spell” that any competent
mage could use to destroy a city. They
just need a few materials and knowledge of this spell, which is known only by dragons.)
Figuring out that connection to our
world isn’t required to enjoy the story, it’s more of an Easter egg. That is my opinion as the author.
When
I started writing this post, as an exercise I tried to think of what someone
else could read into my story. What I
came up with was the Prometheus legend. Our
hero – knowing only that the dragons have a secret – sets out to discover it
and share it with humanity. Eventually
she learns the secret – and vows never to share it – but she is also “punished”
for her search. It’s not a perfect fit,
but it’s what I came up with after five minutes of thought. The Prometheus legend was in the back of my
head, but it was never a conscious part of the story.
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