Author, Reader, or Text? (aka Canonicity Slapdown 2005)

[alatar]

The voices inside of alatar's head held a meeting to decide on a poll choice. Here's a glimpse into that conversation...

"Let's look at our options, shall we?

The first choice has it all on the author's side. If Tolkien were writing strictly for Tolkien, then we'd be okay with this choice, but didn't he assume that his works would be read by others (and not just members of his family)? The books are a form of communication, and that presumes that some other will hear the message. All forms of communication have an error rate - the message from inside the head (thought) is transmitted via voice or writing and always something is lost in the translation.

Just look at how fellow B-Ders interpret to our posts.

Even with God-like writings skills and the ability to hammer the 'meaning' into stone, there is still the chance that the message will not be received clearly. As the author cannot control the reader/observer, then one cannot believe that the meaning can be derived solely on the intention of the author.

If an author's intention fell in the woods, would anyone hear it?

Which leads to the second choice. The reader obviously can infer a meaning, but as two different reader can derive two different meanings, this method of determination is subjective. If a thousand readers determined a thousand meanings, should we average or filter these to see what is in common? But what about those readers who cannot read the works in the original language? And then there are those readers who have watched the Peter Jackson films and so are, shall we say, tainted by that?

When did they add that stuff about that Tom guy - he wasn't in the movie.

Choice three seems to be reasonable, but debate by the 'experts' may just devolve into who can shout the loudest and longest. Even with objective standards and guidelines, the analysts, being human, are subjective and also are not privy to the author's pure thoughts but just the 'translations.' Analysis may approximate the meaning, but there will always be doubt.

And there are those that are so 'expert' that they cannot see that sometimes lembas are simply just lembas.

The last choice then would seem to be the most reasonable, as it is noncommittal, states a liking for the text and could preclude having to make such a long-winded rant such as this one...

We vote for #4."