Woof, looks like I missed quite the discussion here yesterday! I’m so sorry for being a snail, guys :mrgreen: most of what I would have said has already been talked about, so I’m afraid I don’t have much to add anymore.
Death of the author ties in with my philosophy of life that there are many different interpretations of reality. Each reader has their own construct of reality, so each reader will interpret the story using their own narrative.
This sounds awfully familiar to a conversation we had a while back! :mrgreen: I agree with @mercuryfoam about how reader’s interpretation is more important to my than my intent – to a certain degree. Everyone has their own personal version of your world in their head, and are experiencing your story in a way that they enjoy. It ties into the talk that mercury and I had about Schrodinger's cat, and accepting multiple versions of truth. I actually take great pleasure in writing scenes that can be interpreted in many different ways, and seeing what people choose to see. Readers often surprise me with insights and ideas that I hadn’t even considered, too.
The only danger with the back-and-forth relationship between writers and readers while you're still writing is indeed, as you guys mentioned already, that you may start subconsciously trying to appease readers, or explain your thought process too much in order for them to see “your” version. @ThePlumbob is right with that they can’t see the whole story, and their ideas may not work for future plot points at all. If you tell them, you spoil future events. If you change the story, you ruin story beats (especially if you’ve been working towards them for a while). Worst case scenario, your plot won't fit together anymore and crumbles out from under you.
But I can imagine it's also not fun for the reader. I've experienced that a few times myself. I'd be excited about a prediction/idea I had for a story I'm reading, so I shared it with the author. They then proceeded to explain in detail what was actually going on, and how my theory could not be true. It cleared things up - but it also pretty much killed any enjoyment I had in analyzing the story.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I think it's important (especially in ongoing stories) not to kill the author in favor of the reader. But I think it's just as important not to kill the reader for the sake of the author's vision.