#sorry if the language is a bit dense here i got into essay mode

[starpeace]

separating the art from the artist? ☕️

OOF okay we’re coming out with the big guns

first of all i think the ‘death of the author’ concept is literature theory that’s been taken out of context. look, hey, i don’t want to read roland barthes’ original essay either, it’s a nightmare to get through your brain, but ‘death of the author’ was meant to service literary criticism and was never intended to be a way to enjoy literature without dealing with the author being problematic.

‘death of the author’, as it was taught to me, claims that there is no ultimate correct interpretation of a text defined by what the author intended. essential meaning comes from the individual reader, rather than the author. it means we can have interpretations of the text that focus on the text itself rather than interpreting it through the lens of the author’s experiences. it means we can have interpretations of the text that the author may disagree with.

it does not negate the content of the text, which always inherently contains the beliefs and prejudices of the author.

look, i’m a star wars fan. star wars has problematic creators that have made problematic content. and i argue it is impossible to separate the basic facts of the text from those who wrote it. for an easy example, the tusken raiders are characterised as brutish savages because of the author’s racism. this racism cannot be separated from the fundamental plot of the star wars films. if you engage with the text without recognising this, you engage with those beliefs without criticising them. this will inevitably have an effect on your internal prejudices.

ultimately i believe you will always have a responsibility to think critically about media you consume rather than engaging with it as art that somehow magically came into being, free of influence from or repercussions on the outside world. and with something as big as star wars, resources on its difficult aspects are always freely available for people to engage with.