CraigOhMyEggoAlt

This is for those who know what "death of the author" means or who is willing to look it up, but in short, it can summed up to mean "whatever a work of fiction means is up to the people to decide on".

Question inspired by an incident the other day where I saw someone one day cite "death of the author" when asked why he went into the womens' bathroom, saying "you keep saying the symbol on the door is a stick figure in a dress, but I look at it and see a stick figure in a cape, and so I entered because I'm super."

One day I asked what someone’s relationship status was, and they said “I have a girlfriend but she’s been missing and is presumed dead, so I don’t know if getting another GF would be cheating”. It’s at that moment when I realized how complicated relationship statuses can get. Like that Seinfeld episode where the guy is in a coma so he lends his girlfriend to another guy.

I was watching a Joe Scott video about the Somerton Man, and at one point he mentions it's believed he just wanted to be forgotten.

I've met a lot of people who are like this. They feel too dysphoric about their life and are eager to see the day when their families all pass away or have memory loss so that the worst parts of their life aren't in other peoples' heads anymore. It's sad.

There are a lot of things we consider rights by default. There's a right to a burial. There's a right to a last meal. There's a right to a will. Some of these have people who philosophize about them but most are taken for granted.

Do you think there's a right to be forgotten? How much do you validate it? What's your reasoning?