I guess I’m thinking, if it’s such a blank canvases that one can put almost any meaning or message onto the movie, then it almost certainly doesn’t actually have one for itself. It’s a hole for us to toss meaning into instead of a fountain pouring it’s meaning out to us.
And some stories say things (or assume them as I believe in Heinlein’s case) that aren’t The Point or the meaning of the story. Those thing certainly date a work of it’s time, because they’re something we impose on them later.
It doesn’t seem we should give credit to the work for something we imposed on it.
I can understand what you’re getting at, but disagree. Even a movie that’s totally meaningless to the writer and director can be meaningful to the audience, because we communicate so much more than we intend to when we create something. A skilled future archaeologist could glean a lot into our society’s values by seeing a Michael Bay movie. Our ability see meanings the director doesn’t intend and different from those of other viewers isn’t indicative of a lack of meaning, but a multitude in my opinion.
I took a literature class in college in which we read and analyzed the hunger games. I have wished over the years that I could talk to the professor about all sorts of things, because he was absolutely brilliant. He broke down so many stereotypes that were intentionally broken or reinforced and how those choices supported the author’s narratives while seeming completely shallow. As I said, I’m not great at analysis, so it may sound like I was just being a rube, but most of the time when people are reading something that’s not there into a work, I can poke holes in it pretty well.
I guess I’m thinking, if it’s such a blank canvases that one can put almost any meaning or message onto the movie, then it almost certainly doesn’t actually have one for itself. It’s a hole for us to toss meaning into instead of a fountain pouring it’s meaning out to us.
And some stories say things (or assume them as I believe in Heinlein’s case) that aren’t The Point or the meaning of the story. Those thing certainly date a work of it’s time, because they’re something we impose on them later.
It doesn’t seem we should give credit to the work for something we imposed on it.
I can understand what you’re getting at, but disagree. Even a movie that’s totally meaningless to the writer and director can be meaningful to the audience, because we communicate so much more than we intend to when we create something. A skilled future archaeologist could glean a lot into our society’s values by seeing a Michael Bay movie. Our ability see meanings the director doesn’t intend and different from those of other viewers isn’t indicative of a lack of meaning, but a multitude in my opinion.
I took a literature class in college in which we read and analyzed the hunger games. I have wished over the years that I could talk to the professor about all sorts of things, because he was absolutely brilliant. He broke down so many stereotypes that were intentionally broken or reinforced and how those choices supported the author’s narratives while seeming completely shallow. As I said, I’m not great at analysis, so it may sound like I was just being a rube, but most of the time when people are reading something that’s not there into a work, I can poke holes in it pretty well.