OK, going to unload my views on interpretation and stuff.

The importance of the creator(s) intent varies.

Examples:

1) Doesn't matter at all -

In folklore, for example, it doesn't mean anything. In some of the older versions of Beauty and the Beast, Beauty is an extremely passive character. Yet she becomes an extremely assertive character in many of the more modern versions without any serious alterations to the text. The question in folklore is what a story means to the culture, not what it meant in another culture or at some different point in time. This is why, for example, many people feel the debate about how Davy Crocket died at the Alamo isn't about historical detail but about having heroes or people to look up to.

2) Sort of matters

Then, there are plays. Plays always require some level of interpretation and, to the extent that it doesn't require the actors to make hash of the script, it's perfectly reasonable to have interpretations that the original author may not have ever thought of. Take the story about Avon and Servalan in Aftermath - the words were in the script but the actions they added weren't. So I'm told.

3) But there are limits

But, any particular production exists in a narrower field. I may not _like_ Freudian Hamlet, but I can't see Olivier's version without admitting that's where it was coming from.

So, for example, while I suppose I could argue whether or not the B7 scripts could be rewritten in a way that would allow for cheery song and dance numbers to be inserted without violating the integrity of the scripts, I admit they'd be completely out of place in B7 as it was actually performed (could and would being different words, please note).

Although, some things just aren't worth the trouble. There's just no way to resolve Klingon brith/death ratios as implied in the series with both the culture and the Klingons continuing to be a military threat (I'm sure you all wanted to know that).

Back to the point, which is that, while there may be a lot that's open to debate, but let's be realistic here.

Whew. Onto unconscious.

Since I know I unconsciously put things into stories I write that I often don't see until I've at least finished a rough draft, I know it happens. themes, meanings, yadda, yadda. Some of this is just mental baggage, like when I realized a bit I put in a story was a nightmarish rendering of a kindergarten activity (you had to be there).

Hey, other authors do it, too. Honest. B7, for example, was written during a time when people were very cynical about government and the military. Star Trek, OTOH, was written when they were less so. I think it's safe to say that this shows without it necessarily reflecting _deliberate_ intent by the creators (at least of Trek).

So, if I accept the premise of the lack of center in B7, I probably wouldn't accept that it was _conscious_, given what I know about how it was written (by different authors sometimes working under heavy time constraints). However, I could accept it as _unconscious_, that the creators latched onto a feeling of bleakness and cynicism that this played into. That is, it felt 'right' without their necessarily analyzing why or deliberately trying to create a particular image.

OTOH, there are premises that I'm pretty sure weren't, intentionally or otherwise, a part of B7 that I would still consider legitimate if I put them to a particular use. For me with B7, there are two possible uses.

1) Reinterpretation - that means things like 'How I would have done RoD.'

2) Fanfic.

So, for example, I'm pretty sure no one involved in the show meant to go with the Feminist interpretation of Power in which the Hommiks are actually the more egalitarian society and the Seska were a minority ruling group who, before being overthrown, particularly exploited and abused the unimplanted women in their society; but it's the interpretaion I go with because the only other way to deal with Power invloves purging all evidence that it ever existed from the face of the Earth which, besides being impratical, seems to violate a few freedom of speech ideas that, as a sometimes writer, I actually do support.

Oh, and there's also a possible third -

3) Whoa. Deep insight. What an interesting way of viewing that.

Ellynne ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.