>Don't we do that with the entire series? (Any series, or novel, or film, or song?)
To a degree. (I think this is essentially the same discussion I've had with a lot of people about 2.08 *g*). I think that everyone has, of course, the right to see in a show (book, movie) whatever they want to see in it. However, I also believe that the number of interpretations that can actually be reasonably *supported with evidence* from a text, is limited by that text. Yes, limited, not infinite. (Well, there may be infinite minor variations, but there will be a limited number of 'main lines' of possible interpretations.)
Doesn't mean I can't *see* other things in it, and have highly idiosyncratic reactions, and spin it all every which way. And I can, and should, do just about *anything* you can imagine in fic, because fic is art and transformative and so on. So, I can write fic in which Life On Mars is actually all about TCG who's the one who's *really* in a coma, with Sam as her hallucination - but if I want to advance the theory that that is what LoM actually *is* about, it will be hard to find enough evidence to make that claim plausible, so it will never be a valid interpretation in that sense.
And that's really all that my ramblings here were about. Not "is the fic plausible?" - because the fic was eminently plausible; it wouldn't have caused me to go off on this rambly posting/thinking spree if it hadn't been - but rather: "now that I've read that fic, I need to question my view of 1.04, to see if perhaps what the fic says actually *is* canon. *Because* the fic was so damn plausible." I wanted to clarify, for myself, whether the fic essentially required me to reevaluate canon in this respect, or whether it 'only' presented an alternative interpretation. I think I've decided for myself that it does the latter.
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Oh and:
Date: 2007-12-19 11:38 pm (UTC)To a degree. (I think this is essentially the same discussion I've had with a lot of people about 2.08 *g*). I think that everyone has, of course, the right to see in a show (book, movie) whatever they want to see in it. However, I also believe that the number of interpretations that can actually be reasonably *supported with evidence* from a text, is limited by that text. Yes, limited, not infinite. (Well, there may be infinite minor variations, but there will be a limited number of 'main lines' of possible interpretations.)
Doesn't mean I can't *see* other things in it, and have highly idiosyncratic reactions, and spin it all every which way. And I can, and should, do just about *anything* you can imagine in fic, because fic is art and transformative and so on. So, I can write fic in which Life On Mars is actually all about TCG who's the one who's *really* in a coma, with Sam as her hallucination - but if I want to advance the theory that that is what LoM actually *is* about, it will be hard to find enough evidence to make that claim plausible, so it will never be a valid interpretation in that sense.
And that's really all that my ramblings here were about. Not "is the fic plausible?" - because the fic was eminently plausible; it wouldn't have caused me to go off on this rambly posting/thinking spree if it hadn't been - but rather: "now that I've read that fic, I need to question my view of 1.04, to see if perhaps what the fic says actually *is* canon. *Because* the fic was so damn plausible." I wanted to clarify, for myself, whether the fic essentially required me to reevaluate canon in this respect, or whether it 'only' presented an alternative interpretation. I think I've decided for myself that it does the latter.