It's not so much that I don't think one's own characters don't have secret lives-- it's that I don't think one could conclusively determine what they are for another writer's text. I am, in fact, a writer-- and I don't 'know' things (rationally) about my characters so much as I seem to draw new information (often enough extraneous to the story) from the 'ether', so to speak. I don't 'know' so much as feel. There are quite a number of ways to both write & read/perceive a text, is what I'm saying.
But yes, I know there are certain inferences one can make with a higher certainty than others, based on 'evidence' and subtext and one's knowledge of human nature, when going from another's text. However, I'm just saying these inferences are inconclusive, unlike with a story one writes oneself. That is to say, literary criticism isn't a hard science, you know?
I do think I got confused wading around with the subtext/text issues and their respective terminology, so I won't muddle things further by trying to over-explain where I may recollect coming from~:) I suppose partly it's that I meant you could slash things with non-existent subtext, too-- and it'd still be slash-- and it may be OOC but in a way, anything you write as a fan-writer is 'OOC' to a degree since you cannot know the complete truth about the characters as the author does. One can approximate, of course, but never 100%. Anyway, people sometimes slash just because they think two characters -could- have an interesting relationship, not because they do-- and I don't know if that's not slash (or even OOC) by definition so much as AU of a certain sort.
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Re: Part 1
Date: 2004-11-21 12:21 am (UTC)But yes, I know there are certain inferences one can make with a higher certainty than others, based on 'evidence' and subtext and one's knowledge of human nature, when going from another's text. However, I'm just saying these inferences are inconclusive, unlike with a story one writes oneself. That is to say, literary criticism isn't a hard science, you know?
I do think I got confused wading around with the subtext/text issues and their respective terminology, so I won't muddle things further by trying to over-explain where I may recollect coming from~:) I suppose partly it's that I meant you could slash things with non-existent subtext, too-- and it'd still be slash-- and it may be OOC but in a way, anything you write as a fan-writer is 'OOC' to a degree since you cannot know the complete truth about the characters as the author does. One can approximate, of course, but never 100%. Anyway, people sometimes slash just because they think two characters -could- have an interesting relationship, not because they do-- and I don't know if that's not slash (or even OOC) by definition so much as AU of a certain sort.
And yes, this has been er... enlightening :>