On Wed, Sep 26, 2001 at 09:00:40PM +0100, Neil Faulkner wrote:
From: Kathryn Andersen kat@welkin.apana.org.au
But of course, it's only in the context of a work of literature that you can even talk about it having meaning at all -- if one is wondering about the *internals* of the universe, such as "Why does Blake know about churches and Gan doesn't?" then looking for internal explanations of such things hasn't got anything to do with meaning or authorial intent at all -- because they are external to the B7 universe.
But are internal explanations really severable from authorial intent. It was, after all, Nation's intention that Blake should know something Gan didn't, even if it was just an excuse for a bit of info-dumping. And it was also Nation's intent to give us that information, otherwise the exchange between Blake and Gan would never have been written in. Since Nation saw fit to include it, presumably there is some kind of message there, from which some meaning can be extracted.
Yes you *can* do that -- but not if you are playing the game of "find the *internal* explanation" -- as we do so often. The exploring of the history of the B7 universe in its own terms... For the internal explanation, one considers things like Blake's penchant for knowing historical trivia, and so on.
(kathryn bangs head against desk) Guess I failed to comminicate again.
Kathryn Andersen -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Vila: The architectural style is Early Maniac! Arco: We need food and shelter. Vila: But do we need them that badly? (Blake's 7: Cygnus Alpha [A3])