The axis of "confirmed by the author" and "fake as fuck imagined bullshit" has done so much damage and it feels insane to even talk about?
The Knights of Guinevere fiasco is really good proof of that. The entire framing of that situation as "people butthurt mad that the author said their headcanon wasn't real" not only doesn't really get across what was actually wrong with the situation but also like, it wasn't a "headcanon"! It was a reading of the text!
Death of the author is not my favorite literary tool, but trans readings of the main character had solid textual evidence for this. This wasn't an imagined reality. If you, you know, actually fucking listened, you would have seen that it was pretty reasonable. I didn't even share the reading when I watched the episode and when I found out about it I went "yeah that seems pretty reasonable actually."
There's a whole discussion to be had about whether the author should have even responded to the question or not, or whether the question should have been asked. I don't need the author's fucking permission to find a transgender reading of a character. I do not need Kim Ji-hoon to come down from the heavens and say "Yes, Ishmael is transgender. You're the most right fan in the entire world. Also you never need to gamble for an ID again."
But now the fact that the creator for KoG came down and said "No that character is not transgender. They're cis" will forever be used as a cudgel to beat over anyone who watches the show and comes to the same reading. It will forever be a tool to hit trans women with who want to see themselves reflected in characters. That was the problem!
and really, I don't care. One of the ideas behind death of the author is that people will write meanings into text that they do not see or believe are there. Andy Weir writes books with political messages even if he's a dumbass who doesn't know what the world means.
