I have seen it argued here on this very board that Ridley Scott doesn’t know what he’s talking about when it comes to Blade Runner and Harrison Ford is not a replicant. Me, I don’t agree with Guillermo del Torro. The magic in Pan’s Labyrinth is not real. It’s Ofelia’s coping mechanism and del Torro is mistaken. The Beatles are totally either lying or wrong. Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds is about a drug trip.
How 'bout you. Do you disagree with an artist’s interpretation of his own work?
Ray Bradbury insists Fahrenheit 451 is not about government censorship, but about how TV rots your brain or something.
Semisonic’s lead singer insists the song Closing Time is about his wife giving birth to their child, but I happen to know it’s about graduating from college.
J.R.R. Tolkien hated allegory, and insisted there wasn’t any in his stories.
(Then he wrote “Leaf by Niggle.”)
…
I’m of the opinion that Basil dies in the last episode of Fawlty Towers. According to another thread on the subject (started by me), John Cleese has discussed the possibility of writing further adventures of Fawlty, so presumably he thinks he’s still alive.
The creators of “Veronica’s Closet” insisted that the title had nothing to do with “Victoria’s Secret.”
Most artists, I think, are not really aware of what they’re doing. It’s hard to imagine that Shakespeare could have had the least notion of all the interpretations of Hamlet.
I met the film director John Ford back in around 1968 or so, and tried to discuss some of the profundity of his work, and he just waved his hand and said that they were potboilers, he was just trying to make a buck, how about if we discuss baseball instead.
“Never trust the artist, trust the tale.”-- D H Lawrence
Of course, it’s also true that sometimes artists lie when discussing their work. Alfred Hitchcock is notoriously unreliable – he was interviewed so often, he made up stories about his films that were great stories but not based in reality.
Heinlein, in speaking of the world in Starship Troopers, said that it was possible to earn the vote through civilian civil service such as the Post Office. The book, however, is quite clear that it is not.
RikWriter, I always figured that it was pretty obvious that the song was about graduation, too.
“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” not being about LSD is such a crock of shit. Like, really John. Perhaps you dropped acid and dreamt your son drew a picture of a classmate.
Heinlein was wrong about Starship Troopers. He was also wrong about the population of Soviet Russia. Among other things.
What evidence is there?
In an early episode (the one where Basil hires Mr. O’Reilly to do some remodeling, O’Reilly says to him:
The final episode is the one with the health inspector. Basil has been working to correct some issues the inspector found on his first visit, then has to track down Manuel’s pet rat (“Is filigree hamster.”), almost serves poisoned veal, etc. When he finally thinks everything is under control, the inspector is presented with the rat inside the cracker box. The final scene has Manuel and Polly dragging Basil out of the dining room, while Sybil says " I’m afraid it’s started to rain again", which is about all the notice they’d pay to Basil’s death.
The big difference between Pan’s Labyrinth and Blade Runner is that del Toro wrote Pan’s Labyrinth and spent a lot of time developing the film before that, whereas Scott wasn’t a screenwriter for Blade Runner or the author of the book the film is based on.
DC Comics insists to this day that Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are not gay.
The Battle of Five Armies = World War I
Or to put it another way, a guy who drips some ink on a page forming a blot can’t predict all the crap people will see in it.
Can’t it be both, like the late Earl Warren?
Now who’s being naive?
I thougt this was going to be more about, “The creator/actor is wrong about the quality of his work”. E.G. Gene Wilder on Willy Wonka or Harrison Ford on Bladerunner*
A friend of mine complimented Sam Shepard recently on one of his more obscure plays…I think Sam thought my friend was being sarcastic.
*Usually if the project is beloved enough, the grouchy actor will come around somewhat.