Suppose a book begins with the sentence 'Dark clouds gathered'. Does this mean that it is going to rain, or there is going to be a war, or something else no-one had thought of? The traditional answer was: ask the author, or try to work out what the author intended it to mean. But this would not give you the answer, surprising though that may seem. Why not? Because what the words mean is what they mean to you, the reader, and to anyone else who speaks the language to which they belong. Authors can't change what words mean by intending something different, any more than you can. What they say they mean is no more correct than anyone else's interpretation.