For instance, in the first example the artist added a skull because it looked rad. But why did it look rad? What influences did the artist have that made skulls rad to them and not scary or beautiful or holy?
Also it doesn’t really matter what the author thinks as long as you can support an interpretation with some evidence. Richard Adams, for example, stated that Watership Down has no meaning and was just some bunny stories for his kids.
So he just wanted to traumatize his kids - for fun!
…but I think that’s a good point. Once the work is out of the artists hands it lives a life of it’s own. It’s a pet peeve of mine when people start bickering and bitching “well no the song/book/movie means this and not that, dumbass, we have the artist on record saying so” like it means anything. I mean sure, it means something, but in the context of personal interpretation it’s pretty much meaningless unless it matters to the interpreter. There are so many layers to it and interpretations and how we experience any kind of works is subjective.
For instance, in the first example the artist added a skull because it looked rad. But why did it look rad? What influences did the artist have that made skulls rad to them and not scary or beautiful or holy?
Also it doesn’t really matter what the author thinks as long as you can support an interpretation with some evidence. Richard Adams, for example, stated that Watership Down has no meaning and was just some bunny stories for his kids.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_the_Author?useskin=vector
So he just wanted to traumatize his kids - for fun!
…but I think that’s a good point. Once the work is out of the artists hands it lives a life of it’s own. It’s a pet peeve of mine when people start bickering and bitching “well no the song/book/movie means this and not that, dumbass, we have the artist on record saying so” like it means anything. I mean sure, it means something, but in the context of personal interpretation it’s pretty much meaningless unless it matters to the interpreter. There are so many layers to it and interpretations and how we experience any kind of works is subjective.