All I can go on is with what I was told. BTW, I did find the email, and it was unequivocally stated as I remembered. Amazingly, that was almost a dozen years ago!
Personally, the reason I like it that way (though stopped barely short of outright stating it in Spinward States) is because it completely recasts his personal life into something that was far happier and far more joyful (until the end). It basically took his rather empty personal life (as highlighted in RSB) and flipped it into a personal life that was actually filled with love and joy. The end was unhappy, but that was because the love of his life died and because he was heavily weighed down by the huge sacrifice he forced his daughter to make. But the vast majority of his life was happy and he got to spend it with the person he most loved.
To be blunt, I view it that way because, after RSB, his life makes way more sense with that interpretation.
Mike West
Personally, the reason I like it that way (though stopped barely short of outright stating it in Spinward States) is because it completely recasts his personal life into something that was far happier and far more joyful (until the end). It basically took his rather empty personal life (as highlighted in RSB) and flipped it into a personal life that was actually filled with love and joy. The end was unhappy, but that was because the love of his life died and because he was heavily weighed down by the huge sacrifice he forced his daughter to make. But the vast majority of his life was happy and he got to spend it with the person he most loved.
To be blunt, I view it that way because, after RSB, his life makes way more sense with that interpretation.
Mike West