A Turn For the Books

    This entry is going be handled a little differently than the ones before, in that I’m not going to be discussing any one movie in particular. Instead I’m going to focusing on an essay written by David Bordwell that examines and discusses the state of film interpretation in the modern world. I will also be covering a video made by Lindsay Ellis that briefly analyzes the book Ender’s Game and discusses author’s interpretation, how relevant it is when analyzing their work, and how relevant different kinds of interpretations of said are, which you can watch here (it's about 12 minutes long). 

 

    Bordwell’s essay mostly just goes over the different facets of film interpretation; how qualified do you have to be, how important is interpretation when criticizing a film etc. It’s a little dry, and to be honest, he doesn’t really go much into creator’s intent. There are some interesting parts to it though, such as his definition of interpretation. “Interpretation, by contrast, ascribes abstract and nonliteral meanings to the film and its world. It ascribes a broader significance, going beyond the denoted world and any denoted message to posit implicit or symptomatic meanings at work in the text” (Bordwell, 96). He doesn’t really discuss author’s intent so I’m left to guess at what his opinion might be.

    Ellis’s discussion is more focused on its two topics: Ender’s Game and author intent. She brings up a lot of the issues I had concerning strange theories (in relation to The Shining) and how valid they are as a whole. She also doesn’t really state her opinion on the issue of how important the author’s intent is, but implies that Orson Scott Card’s own views and intent colored her interpretation of his books. 

 

     Ellis’s video really made me want to get a more definite answer from her on the issue. It’s an issue that I’ve seen get brought up a lot, but haven’t really seen many actual resolutions to. To me, it seems that if you know what a creator’s intent is before you analyze their work, it will affect your own interpretation. I really liked her brief covering of how valid the strange theories are, though again I wish she talked about them more. Because really, how valid ARE these theories? Ender’s Game is related in some way to Hitler? If you dig deep enough you find a parallel in ANY story, but the real question is whether or not it was intended. In most cases, probably not. It just comes off as sounding like an outlandish conspiracy theory. Whatever Card intended in his book, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t an allegory for Hitler.

     This could be applied to other works as well. As I brought up in the first post, many literary scholars see Lord of the Rings as an allegory for World War I. Are they just reading too much into it? Sure this theory isn’t nearly as out there as some of the theories in relation to The Shining, but they still to go against what the author intended. 

    In this essay the author raises a few good points. He states that while both methods of interpretation are valid, an interpretation is not a "bet to be settled" by the author. The author's interpretation of their work should not be the final word on what the intention of the work is.

 Bordwell, David. "Film Interpretation Revisited." Film Criticism 17.2/3 (1993): 95-119. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Apr. 2013.Vancouver/ICMJEReferences