"As with my approach in the Jesus fan community I grew up in, I was taking the claim of allegiance to “canon” more seriously than anyone around me."
This sentence is so wonderful and thought provoking that it was like a bit character with one line totally stealing an entire episode.
Speaking of which, this:
"I certainly wouldn’t make any strong claims that what I’m uncovering is intentional. But the inclusion of all of these stories in a “canon” does invite us to read them together, and the fact that most writers and producers will have been steeped in the existing material makes it likely that parallels will occur—whether as intentional homages or unconscious echoes."
...reminds me of Richard Elliot Friedman's conclusion to his book Who Wrote the Bible?:
"Is the Bible more than the sum of its parts?
Of course.
The mixing of the different stories, laws, poems, and points of view produced things that none of the authors dreamed of...."
He then goes on to point out that Sarah's death comes write after the binding of Isaac, written by two different authors and juxtaposed by an editor who was neither, has been read as having been caused by the latter, and that this is just one example of richness from the interweaving of different biblical texts.
On a different note, regarding this thought—"I even wonder if the episode represents strong evidence that all those quantum possibilities are actualized in any strong sense, or if Worf’s anomaly is creating an effect that doesn’t usually occur…."—I am skeptical that there is any way of cashing that out that doesn't either involve robbing the episode of most of its punch (if the married Troy vanishes once the anomaly is fixed, it's less of a tragedy, or at least a very *different* tragedy; the same with Borg-terrified Riker), or, on the other hand, being essentially unimportant (if the universes *don't* end with the anomaly, then even if Worf caused them, then there are still thousands of realities out there with branching points long before his tournament that have their own existence, so what is the big deal if it is this event which caused it? (which also doesn't seem to fit with Data's claim in the story, anyway)). I'm not saying you couldn't patch this up, but I hope you do so with a full recognition of the difficulty of the task.
"As with my approach in the Jesus fan community I grew up in, I was taking the claim of allegiance to “canon” more seriously than anyone around me."
This sentence is so wonderful and thought provoking that it was like a bit character with one line totally stealing an entire episode.
Speaking of which, this:
"I certainly wouldn’t make any strong claims that what I’m uncovering is intentional. But the inclusion of all of these stories in a “canon” does invite us to read them together, and the fact that most writers and producers will have been steeped in the existing material makes it likely that parallels will occur—whether as intentional homages or unconscious echoes."
...reminds me of Richard Elliot Friedman's conclusion to his book Who Wrote the Bible?:
"Is the Bible more than the sum of its parts?
Of course.
The mixing of the different stories, laws, poems, and points of view produced things that none of the authors dreamed of...."
He then goes on to point out that Sarah's death comes write after the binding of Isaac, written by two different authors and juxtaposed by an editor who was neither, has been read as having been caused by the latter, and that this is just one example of richness from the interweaving of different biblical texts.
On a different note, regarding this thought—"I even wonder if the episode represents strong evidence that all those quantum possibilities are actualized in any strong sense, or if Worf’s anomaly is creating an effect that doesn’t usually occur…."—I am skeptical that there is any way of cashing that out that doesn't either involve robbing the episode of most of its punch (if the married Troy vanishes once the anomaly is fixed, it's less of a tragedy, or at least a very *different* tragedy; the same with Borg-terrified Riker), or, on the other hand, being essentially unimportant (if the universes *don't* end with the anomaly, then even if Worf caused them, then there are still thousands of realities out there with branching points long before his tournament that have their own existence, so what is the big deal if it is this event which caused it? (which also doesn't seem to fit with Data's claim in the story, anyway)). I'm not saying you couldn't patch this up, but I hope you do so with a full recognition of the difficulty of the task.
Hoist by my own petard! I let my desire to win a fan theory fight obscure the stakes of the episode!