Trilogy and Bible?

[The Mirrorball Man]

Originally posted by River Jordan:
To find out the true meaning of any piece of literature, you must look at the author (or creator, if you will) and discover what he intended by his writing of the work. You and I may interpret it in different ways, but there is still only one true meaning, and that is what the author intended.

With all due respect, I couldn't disagree more.

A good piece of fiction is not simply a glorified diary entry or newspaper article. Ideally, good literature must offer the reader room for different - and sometimes divergent - interpretations, even beyond what the original author had intended or imagined. It's this quality that makes it possible for some novels or plays to cross the boundaries of time and space, and still be relevant centuries after they've been written, even if all the values of society have changed. Furthermore, a good piece of writing should stand on its own two feet. If you need to study the life of its author in order to properly understand it, it can only mean that the work is incomplete or has become obsolete.

Besides, using the Bible to illustrate your point of view is not very convincing. Even if there's only "one true meaning" in the Bible, it's obvious that scholars can't agree on what it is, otherwise there would probably be less churches and splinter groups of Christians. I think that in that respect, the Bible is not different from any other great book, since it obviously is open to different interpretations.