Tangent about authorial intent
I'm probably missing something in the authorial intent vs reader perception war... it never mattered to me, so I don't get all the kerfuffles about it.
Readers aren't qualified to decide what the author intended.* Authors aren't qualified to decide what the reader understood.
Good comm skills & shared vocab can help those come close to matching, but they won't guarantee it.*Storybit: FOAFOAF was in high school, taking a "Modern Lit" class that discussed science fiction. They were required to write an essay about "Poul Anderson's purpose in writing this book." Student wrote, "he wrote this book because he needed the money." Teacher failed the paper. Student came back with a note from her father--Poul Anderson--saying "no, I wrote that book because Karen needed braces that year."