Unintentional Metaphoric Misunderstanding

It has come to my attention that my last post People are like hair has made several people whom are close to me think that I want to cut them out of my life, or trim them like hair. That was not the message I meant to send with that post. It was supposed to be a comment on how, every now and again, people must reinvent and reevaluate their lives - much like how we often reinvent our hair styles by trimming it. This misunderstanding is a trivial matter to me, but it brings up an interesting issue - the issue of author intention.

In all art there is intention, whether it is music, literature, visual art, or dance. A creator of a work of art sets out to achieve something within their piece. However, they are then subjected to the ever confusing expectations of the consumers of said art. Works of art are then interpreted in all sorts of different ways due to the experiences and opinions each individual consumer brings into their analysis. In other words, everyone has different reasons to like or dislike something, and everyone has different experiences to compare their new ones to. No matter what the author's original intent was, everyone forms their own opinion of the work based on their individual biases. For as long as this has been happening (which is forever), the interplay between author intent and consumer experience has been a challenging but interesting topic for those who make it their business to analyse and comment on art.

Gimli is a bad ass!

An interesting example of the interplay between author intent and consumer experience is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tolkien was a WWI vet and experienced the hells of war first hand. Once his novels were published, many analysts wrote about how the books held metaphors for WWI and that Tolkien was making social commentaries on the world as he saw it. Tolkien was upset by this, and wrote about how he intended to create an alternate world from our own in his works. He wanted to escape reality with his works and create something fantastical, yet all his consumers wanted to do was relate it to their lives and experiences and, dare I say it, learn something they could apply to their lives from his work.

So, here's my next question to ponder over: As consumers, should we strive to learn or take from the art we consume what the author wanted us to, or should we be striving to compare art to our own experiences and draw new conclusions from our interpretations? I think the answer probably lies somewhere in the middle, or maybe in the both category, but hopefully this will inspire you to think more about what you are getting out of the art you consume in the future. I've really appreciated the comments I've received so far on my blog posts, so feel free to start up a discussion or comment on what I've been discussing here. This blog is meant to make you think, and I believe discussion is a great catalyst for that!

Ta ta for now!

when life hands you lemons, compare them to all the fruit experiences you've had in your life and draw new conclusions from this comparison to learn from.