castle at the edge of the world

a lot of people think the only point of engagement with art is just to decode exactly what the author was trying to say, and their intent is the "real meaning," and once you've figured out the real meaning you're done you've solved it. that's dumb and boring. don't do that.

things death of the author does not mean:

every interpretation is equally valid

you are forbidden to treat what we can know or reasonably guess about the author's intentions as something that matters to your interpretation at all

the only valid way to interpret fiction is to treat it like it's a documentary of events that really happened and never think about it in terms of "why would the creator, a human person, choose to present it this way"

authors shouldn't get to have opinions about what they intended to say through their work, they should shut up and let me tell them what it means because i know better

actually i, the person reading or watching or viewing this art, am the infallible source of real meaning, and everybody who disagrees with me is wrong including but not limited to the author

Then for a decent portion of the book every time someone dies she thinks he killed them.

Every time he talks to her she’s so paranoid about him trying to manipulate her into giving something away or otherwise screw her over, she never accepts that he’d want to work together for anything other than sinister reasons.

Meanwhile Palamedes is casually telling anyone who will listen that he thinks she’s an incredibly cool genius who is objectively terrifying because she’s so amazing at everything she does but also he’d trust her with her life because she’s honourable like that.

But it’s a parody of Master and Commander’s opening title

PNG'D! (i didn't know the font so this is taken directly from the image)

this is especially noteworthy given the prevalence of secrecy among alchemists (the emphasis on hiding all information in code, and refusing to reveal any research if possible); Ed has no problem telling trade secrets to a layman when that seems to be a huge deal among non-military alchemists.

Considering that Ed’s biggest issue is his own pride and arrogance, this is a huge character detail for him. Compare him rattling off the chemical composition of the human body in chapter one, seemingly just to make a point to Rose, to how he carefully explains complex technical details as simply as possible to his friends and allies.