That's what I mean by it being polysemic. Or as Joss would say, we all get to bring our own subtext, our own interpretive lenses.
I think, though, that this is a source of a great deal of the Joss cynicism that you see around on LJ. It's one part exhaustion and one part cognitive dissonance.
A lot of fans invested in their ox during the course of the show. Then Joss or Marti would come along in an interview and tell us that our ox was actualy a mule. We'd look at the show and go --nuh-uh! That's an ox! I know it's an ox. It looks like and ox. It acts like an ox. I know what oxes look like. And that's definitely an ox. And Fury or Joss or Marti would give an interview where they'd say, well it might look like an ox and act like an ox, but no it's not and you're sort of crazy for thinking it is one. It's a mule and you should see that it's a mule. And then Jane E and RRK and SdK would do interviews and they'd admit that it looked like an ox to them, too. But Joss and Marti and Fury would give a stompy "It's a MULE! We'll prove it to you." And then we'd watch the rest of the season, and it would still look like an ox. Eventually they'd have a plot twist to show "mule" and we'd still be left feeling "But I saw an ox, and this just looks like an ox in a mule costume." Repeat this scenario often enough and it reached a point where, honestly, I don't know what an ox looks like to Joss or whether mules just look like oxes to me. I don't know how to read his text, or at least I can never trust that my reading of his text truly supported because there have been so, so, so many times when what I read as ox he insisted was a mule... or a zebra... and maybe one time it was a purple elephant. And after a while (around Season 7) as an exhausted fan, I swore to stop trying to read anything into anything with Joss. If he wanted me to see mule, even if I still saw an ox, I'd say, okay. Whatever. I'm tired and I give up. It's an mule even if it still looked like an ox to me.
Of course, by that point, Joss was saying 'whatever' and saying "okay, since so many people are seeing oxes when I'm saying mule, I'll stop saying it's not an ox. If you want to fill in this blank space (and I'll leave some for you) and see an ox, that's okay. And if other groups wants a mules and purple elephants, that's okay too."
And I'd wonder, "Yeah, but you're the author, what is it to you."
At the end of the day I no longer knew. First because I'd long since lost the ability to distinguish oxes from Joss's mules and also because at some point Joss decided to stop distinguishing between them and decided fans could bring their own farm animal. ... at which point, I rather threw up my hands into the air and thought -- fine. If I have to work that hard, I can write my own fanfic. >;)
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I think, though, that this is a source of a great deal of the Joss cynicism that you see around on LJ. It's one part exhaustion and one part cognitive dissonance.
A lot of fans invested in their ox during the course of the show. Then Joss or Marti would come along in an interview and tell us that our ox was actualy a mule. We'd look at the show and go --nuh-uh! That's an ox! I know it's an ox. It looks like and ox. It acts like an ox. I know what oxes look like. And that's definitely an ox. And Fury or Joss or Marti would give an interview where they'd say, well it might look like an ox and act like an ox, but no it's not and you're sort of crazy for thinking it is one. It's a mule and you should see that it's a mule. And then Jane E and RRK and SdK would do interviews and they'd admit that it looked like an ox to them, too. But Joss and Marti and Fury would give a stompy "It's a MULE! We'll prove it to you." And then we'd watch the rest of the season, and it would still look like an ox. Eventually they'd have a plot twist to show "mule" and we'd still be left feeling "But I saw an ox, and this just looks like an ox in a mule costume." Repeat this scenario often enough and it reached a point where, honestly, I don't know what an ox looks like to Joss or whether mules just look like oxes to me. I don't know how to read his text, or at least I can never trust that my reading of his text truly supported because there have been so, so, so many times when what I read as ox he insisted was a mule... or a zebra... and maybe one time it was a purple elephant. And after a while (around Season 7) as an exhausted fan, I swore to stop trying to read anything into anything with Joss. If he wanted me to see mule, even if I still saw an ox, I'd say, okay. Whatever. I'm tired and I give up. It's an mule even if it still looked like an ox to me.
Of course, by that point, Joss was saying 'whatever' and saying "okay, since so many people are seeing oxes when I'm saying mule, I'll stop saying it's not an ox. If you want to fill in this blank space (and I'll leave some for you) and see an ox, that's okay. And if other groups wants a mules and purple elephants, that's okay too."
And I'd wonder, "Yeah, but you're the author, what is it to you."
At the end of the day I no longer knew. First because I'd long since lost the ability to distinguish oxes from Joss's mules and also because at some point Joss decided to stop distinguishing between them and decided fans could bring their own farm animal. ... at which point, I rather threw up my hands into the air and thought -- fine. If I have to work that hard, I can write my own fanfic. >;)