Calle said -
If you were to believe what the authors themselves say, nobody has ever
written a novel because they wanted to make money, and nobody has ever been inspired into writing by Stephen King or Barbara Cartland. Almost invariably, they claim to want to say important things about the human condition and to have been inspired by James Joyce and Marcel Proust. <<
You know I've never met a writer who said anything like that. The most common motive I have heard is 'I want to make enough money from writing so that I can give up my other work/so that I never have to do a day job, because writing is what I like to do best.'
Once we get telepathic scanners capable of looking back in time, *then* we
can talk about the author's intentions.
That seems rather austere. I think it is human nature to speculate about the motives and beliefs of other people, and not to simply limit ourselves to the things for which we have incontrovertible evidence. Of course some people may not enjoy such speculation, and obviously they do not need to participate in it, in any context.
An example would be the argument that the complexity of Avon's characterization is due to the combined effect of many varied aims, on the part of different contributors, resulting in something richer than any one person could have devised alone. I don't see how one could have that discussion without speculation beyond the strict evidence of the work itself. And the result might be a new understanding of the creative process, or a resolution to try and work with other people in creating a script - or anything really might come from the thought. But it would be a shame to disallow the very thought itself.
Alison
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