The harm of author commentary

[Cheerskep]

bDramas have often been especially useful over the ages to exemplify ideas
-
and yet stories from the Bible or Ramayana have still not been replaced by
explications of their meaning.b

I'll pass over some verbal difficulties in that remark and comment that
Chris touches on why I hate talk of themes, bmeaningsb,
interpretationsb, and b
the pointb when it comes to something bmade upb, something not
non-fiction. It literally leads students and critics away from the rewards of
the
creation.

I claim it is destructive to try to talk about the bmeaningb of
bHamletb,
or Van Gogh's bSunflowersb, or Mozart's 20th, or William's abstract
paintings.   William's assertion he wants them to achieve
bmeaninglessnessb is a
very defensible position, I feel.

Flannery O'Connor said, bIt takes every word of my story to tell what it's
about.b