The Wisdom of Isaac Asimov

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

The Wisdom of Isaac Asimov

A few days ago was Isaac Asimov’s 99th birthday. (Rather, his official birthday. He knew he was born between Oct 4, 1919 and Jan 2, 1920, and since he hated the idea of being old, he took the latest date possible as his birthday.) One of the comments on a blog I was reading that day about the Good Doctor was the following:

“Story that Isaac told: Isaac sat in on a class where the professor was teaching about one of his stories.  He approached the professor after the class and said, ‘That story doesn’t mean that at all. I should know. I wrote it.’  And the professor looked at him and said, ‘So?’

And at that moment, Isaac said, he realized that the professor was right.  No matter what the author intended, what the reader got out of it was what was really there.”

If only JKR had his wisdom. I suggest that the official motto of DTCL should be the following:

Saith Isaac Asimov: No matter what the author intends, what the reader gets out of the story is what is really there.

P.S. Don’t stop commenting on sunnyskywalker’s thread below just because I’ve started a new one. The intricacies of the Fidelius Charm are entirely worth a thorough thrashing out.

Comments

[chantaldormand]

While I'm familiar with postmodernism, I must admit that I have very little hands-on experience with rainbow-headed, tumblr-crazy crowd. Around these parts you are more likely to meet religious fanatics or neo-Nazis :P

Generally speaking I don't like ascribing ill intent to living breathing humans whom I never met, unless I have a very good reason to think so. So my go-to reasoning when it comes to author who try to dictate how readers should interpret their works is that their are insecure and/or have some kind of control issues. After all both fans and critics can be very vicious.

I suppose there is a strong possibility that she does it either to boost her sales by looking more trendy or to make herself look more progressive.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

While I'm familiar with postmodernism ...

Maybe you can tell me how close I got to what it means. sharaz_jek says that I didn't hit the mark 'at all', but I think I was in the rough ballpark.

I must admit that I have very little hands-on experience with rainbow-headed, tumblr-crazy crowd.

'Rainbow-headed', heh. I see you've met them. :-)

I've never cottoned on to Tumblr. I can't see how multiple folk can have a communal discussion like we're doing here. I know LJ is dead but still ... I just don't grok Tumblr.

Generally speaking I don't like ascribing ill intent to living breathing humans whom I never met -

Having spent a few years watching Rowling use Twitter I guess I have 'met' her to some extent. I've read her opinions on some political issues. That's why I'm comfortable in saying she's of the Left.

(I never called her a SJW; that's the category into which I feel some of your 'Potterheads' can be placed.)

I suppose there is a strong possibility that she does it either to boost her sales by looking more trendy or to make herself look more progressive.

The latter, definitely, in my opinion. She's found her crowd on Twitter and wants them to think nicely of her, she wants to impress them. So she's trying to retroactively make her books more progressive and herself seem more 'clever' in what she did. But when she flat-out *lies* to do so .... arrrgh.

[chantaldormand]

I've never cottoned on to Tumblr. I can't see how multiple folk can have a communal discussion like we're doing here. I know LJ is dead but still ... I just don't grok Tumblr.

I would advice against visiting it. Before Tumblr banned raunchy content, majority of the site could be split between 18+ fanwork and "I identify as attack helicopter" style SJWs.
Nowadays I have no idea what happens and I'm not curious enough to test waters :P

I'm always hesitant to use social media as measuring stick, since a lot of celebrities and companies employ someone to manage social media.
But then again with JKR we have Dumbledore-is-gay interviews . Eh...