The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion

Do you think it's important to understand an author's intention or rather rely on your own perceptions and understanding of a work of science fiction? For example, are aliens good, is terraforming a good ideas, are wars wrong?

I think that understanding an author's intention helps. Let's take Starship Troopers - RAH was a fierce opponent of conscription, and in the USA at that moment, Korea war ended and the Vietnam started. So, he writes a book, where volunteers are only people who can vote (think about the later Dune idea "He who can destroy a thing has the real control of it") and what ended up as a pseudo-fascist regime in the movie, formally based on the novel

A bit off topic, but... Last week I went to a sale of old stuff at the studio of Phil Tippett who did lots of special effect for movies, including Starship Troopers. (An original Starship Troopers gun prop could be bought for $900. I didn't buy it.)

One of the most interesting things I learned as a result is that there was not just 1, not just 2, but 5 Starship Troopers movies! Some are animated movies, but still .....

Personally,

I think it is very important to understand what the writer is saying. Not that what a reader sees is unimportant.

Two examples:

1). Farenheit 451. People think it is about government censorship. Bradbury himself said in more than one public discussion it was a critique of the shallowness of television.

2). Moby-Dick or, The Whale. Two way to read it. Once is about a captain chasing a great big fish and that is fine. However, if you read what Melville was actually talking about, it is a study of Victorian society, hosexuality, and obsession.

One brings one's own experience to the effort to understand a story's intention. Sometimes knowing what the author thought they were up to helps, but not always.