>I'd say the prevailing ideology is that the Artist should be able to
>articulate the True Meaning of the Work.
That's not so true any longer is it? We've been talking about death of the author for decades now.
>I recognize that this requires us to give up the idea of the artist
>as the one true arbiter of what a work of art means, but as far as
>I'm concerned, the sooner we abandon that bulwark of capitalist
>ideology, the better.
Why all or nothing? It only means that the artist is one more voice in the conversation.