Death of the Author and Doctor Who (and no they aren't meant to be related)

1. Interesting... Death of the Author - application of the literary theory.

Authors know more about their worlds than you do, but maybe don’t have all the answers. If you believe that only the text matters, then an author’s thoughts, beliefs, etc about the world they constructed on the page are no more relevant than your thoughts or anyone else’s; if it’s not on the page, it’s not canon. And that’s fine for you to believe, but as the author, I certainly don’t believe it, because among other things I know how much of the world I have to create in order to support what’s on the page. I have to know more about my world than my readers do, otherwise it’s going to be difficult for me to keep consistency of action (and consequence) across the work, both in characters and the world in general.

But, as it happens, sometimes writers and readers don’t find the same things important, with regard to the worldbuilding. As a result, readers sometimes think about certain things more than the authors have, and the authors get caught flatfooted when readers want to know more about that particular thing. Alternately sometimes the author kind of bullshits through something because they don’t think it’s important and later it comes back to bite them and has to be explained away.

Oh, and you should watch the youtube video...has some interesting things to say about fans interacting with text, and the degree the author has control over that.

"Death of the Author" (Watch on YouTube)

Takeaways?

* Anne Rice notoriously doesn't allow fanfic of her characters or novels, because they are "copyrighted". Hee. How's that working for you, Annie?

* How fans fight with the author's intent and how they view it.

* Focuses on Fault in the Stars, Harry Potter, Catcher in the Rye, and Foucault.

Downside -- I'm not a fan of audible books, sorry. I had troubles paying attention to the youtube video.


2. Doctor Who - New Year's Resolution

So...you are in a dank underwater archaeological site and one of your artifacts has creepily wandered off. You go searching around, and voila find a really gross and creepy gray octopus looking life-form sliding up a wall. What do you do?

a) run away screaming?
b) scream for your assistant's aid and a camera?
c) back away slowly and get your friend the heck out of there
d) touch the thing?

I don't know about anyone else -- but I would run away screaming. Okay maybe not screaming. But definitely away. I would NOT touch the thing. Why do people in horror television series or science fiction television series do dumb things?

Other than that...I pretty much enjoyed the episode. Certainly had the most humor to date. It was very funny in places.

( spoiler )