# The artist is WRONG about his own work. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 12, 2014, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900 "2014-07-12T00:07:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/1 "2014-07-12T00:07:32Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/2 "2014-07-12T00:16:45Z")
Ray Bradbury insists Fahrenheit 451 is not about government censorship, but about how TV rots your brain or something. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/3 "2014-07-12T00:30:14Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/4 "2014-07-12T01:19:26Z")
J.R.R. Tolkien hated allegory, and insisted there wasn’t any in his stories. (Then he wrote “Leaf by Niggle.”) ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/5 "2014-07-12T01:36:31Z")
[QUOTE=Georgia O’Keeffe] You [hang] all your own associations with flowers on my flower … as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower – and I don’t. [/QUOTE] … ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/6 "2014-07-12T02:02:51Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/7 "2014-07-12T03:00:37Z")
The creators of “Veronica’s Closet” insisted that the title had nothing to do with “Victoria’s Secret.” ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/8 "2014-07-12T03:00:54Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/9 "2014-07-12T03:34:53Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/10 "2014-07-12T03:37:47Z")
“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. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/11 "2014-07-12T04:16:09Z")
Heinlein was wrong about Starship Troopers. He was also wrong about the population of Soviet Russia. Among other things. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/12 "2014-07-12T05:33:24Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > 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. What evidence is there? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/13 "2014-07-12T06:33:14Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > 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 trouble with you, Mr. Fawlty, is that you worry too much. You keep it up like this and you’ll have a stroke before fifty. Stone dead you’ll be. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/14 "2014-07-12T08:50:19Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/15 "2014-07-12T09:54:33Z")
DC Comics insists to this day that Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are not gay. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/16 "2014-07-12T09:54:36Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > J.R.R. Tolkien hated allegory, and insisted there wasn’t any in his stories. > > (Then he wrote “Leaf by Niggle.”) The Battle of Five Armies = World War I ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/17 "2014-07-12T10:04:58Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > 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. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/18 "2014-07-12T10:51:01Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Ray Bradbury insists Fahrenheit 451 is not about government censorship, but about how TV rots your brain or something. Can’t it be both, like the late Earl Warren? ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/19 "2014-07-12T10:58:45Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Can’t it be both, like the late Earl Warren? _Now_ who’s being naive? ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900/20 "2014-07-12T13:57:31Z")
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. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-artist-is-wrong-about-his-own-work/692900.md?page=2)