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A few thoughts on the topic of authorial intent.
5 years ago
Good day everyone! Inkwolf here.
Spending my days stuck at home and slowly but surely running out of video games to play, I guess a good way to pass the time is to practice some introspection. As a hobby, I love to think a lot about media, analyzing and overanalyzing it and learning about it's creation process. Now one question that often comes up is what an author was intending when creating a story, and whether or not they succeeded in it. Since I have been publiching my own stories in the form of the Leandre comics for over 4 years now, I felt like it might be a good idea to put my own intent out there, and also discuss the topic on a general level a bit.
First off, I want to mention authorial intent versus audience perception. In an ideal case, these two things align. The author succeeded in conveying whatever message or emotion they put into their work, and that is exactly the message that the audience got. It is great when that happens, and a good indicator to tell that the author knows what they are doing, but we don't life in an ideal world. More often than not, messages are misunderstood, emotions are conveyed differently, intent is perceived wrongly and so on, or something was put in there by accident. This is not about pointing fingers or making accusations, miscommunications can happen on both ends, and they can be an interesting source of new interpretations. It is not something that should be avoided at all costs, but it is something we should be aware of when viewing or discussing media.
This is where politics come in, or rather, agendas of any kind. There's a popular notion out there that all media is political, whether it intends to be or not. People have opinions, and authors are people, and whether they intend to or not, telling a story through characters interacting with a world will be coloured by their own ways of thinking. I think there is some merit to that notion. At the very least I think we can agree that a lot of people are trying to view all sorts of media in a political light. That is not necesserily a bad thing, but I do want to remind everyone that intent, portrayal and interpretation are three different things. An author might have something they have to say or not. If they aren't careful, that message is portrayed wrong, or we end up accidentaly implying things that we didn't mean to. And finally, when engaging with a story, people can draw the wrong conclusions or find meaning where there's actually none.
As I said earlier, I don't think misinterpretations are necesserily a bad thing. Very interesting new points of view can come from it, ways to look at a story or a character that weren't even considered before. I don't think we should necesserily try and avoid them at any cost, but I would like to say, be weary of people claiming to know for sure. If someone claims Work X by Auther Y definitely contains messages of Political direction Z, and therefore Y is definitely a Z-ist, please take the time to look at the source material yourself and draw your own conclusions. And maybe consider the context of time, culture and the conditions under which it was created as well. On the flipside, claiming as an author "It was intended to say XYZ!" is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for careless story writing. We can not simply claim that our works are apolitical and magically be absolved of all responsibility for what our works end up saying, intentional or not.
So yeah, basically what I am saying is, when engaging with a story and deriving meaning from it, stay critical, draw your own conclusions, and grant the benefit of the doubt. Also, value misinterpretations for what they are. They might not be what was intended, but they can still be useful. Or at the very least entertaining.
To seperate this from the general discussion, I just want to take a moment to lay bare what my own intentions are when writing the Leandre comics. And really, at it's core it is just me telling the types of stories I would like to see more of myself. I try to avoid political statements with these comics, since that is not what they are about. I am not smart enough of a person to understand politics, social issues, or anythign of the sort, so I don't intend to make comments about them. The prime objective with these comics is always entertainment.
Obviously, I also portray some of the things that I am passionate about, first of all being science, critical thinking and a general attitude of open-mindedness and curiosity. I feel like all of these subjects are dealt with on a very surface level, since they come second to just having a fun time on my list of priorities, but I do hope they can inspire people to look more into those things and maybe learn something from people who actually know what they are talking about. Really, I am not taking any of this too seriously, and I am probably horribly misrepresenting the science of archeology terribly in my latest comic.
Also, I feel like I'd be amiss not to adress the uncomfortable topic of all the non-consensual sexual themes throughout all of my work at this point. I do hope it is clear that I do not in any way advocate for any of that. All of that is meant to build an escapist fantasy only and nothing beyond that. I really think that was already clear to everyone, but I feel like it needed to be mentioned at this point. Fantasizing about anything is fine as long as it stays a fantasy.
So yeah, other than the art of story-telling itself, really nothing in the comics is really meant to be taken too serious. I am telling a story because telling this story is fun to me. I hope you enjoy it for what it is too!
Spending my days stuck at home and slowly but surely running out of video games to play, I guess a good way to pass the time is to practice some introspection. As a hobby, I love to think a lot about media, analyzing and overanalyzing it and learning about it's creation process. Now one question that often comes up is what an author was intending when creating a story, and whether or not they succeeded in it. Since I have been publiching my own stories in the form of the Leandre comics for over 4 years now, I felt like it might be a good idea to put my own intent out there, and also discuss the topic on a general level a bit.
First off, I want to mention authorial intent versus audience perception. In an ideal case, these two things align. The author succeeded in conveying whatever message or emotion they put into their work, and that is exactly the message that the audience got. It is great when that happens, and a good indicator to tell that the author knows what they are doing, but we don't life in an ideal world. More often than not, messages are misunderstood, emotions are conveyed differently, intent is perceived wrongly and so on, or something was put in there by accident. This is not about pointing fingers or making accusations, miscommunications can happen on both ends, and they can be an interesting source of new interpretations. It is not something that should be avoided at all costs, but it is something we should be aware of when viewing or discussing media.
This is where politics come in, or rather, agendas of any kind. There's a popular notion out there that all media is political, whether it intends to be or not. People have opinions, and authors are people, and whether they intend to or not, telling a story through characters interacting with a world will be coloured by their own ways of thinking. I think there is some merit to that notion. At the very least I think we can agree that a lot of people are trying to view all sorts of media in a political light. That is not necesserily a bad thing, but I do want to remind everyone that intent, portrayal and interpretation are three different things. An author might have something they have to say or not. If they aren't careful, that message is portrayed wrong, or we end up accidentaly implying things that we didn't mean to. And finally, when engaging with a story, people can draw the wrong conclusions or find meaning where there's actually none.
As I said earlier, I don't think misinterpretations are necesserily a bad thing. Very interesting new points of view can come from it, ways to look at a story or a character that weren't even considered before. I don't think we should necesserily try and avoid them at any cost, but I would like to say, be weary of people claiming to know for sure. If someone claims Work X by Auther Y definitely contains messages of Political direction Z, and therefore Y is definitely a Z-ist, please take the time to look at the source material yourself and draw your own conclusions. And maybe consider the context of time, culture and the conditions under which it was created as well. On the flipside, claiming as an author "It was intended to say XYZ!" is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for careless story writing. We can not simply claim that our works are apolitical and magically be absolved of all responsibility for what our works end up saying, intentional or not.
So yeah, basically what I am saying is, when engaging with a story and deriving meaning from it, stay critical, draw your own conclusions, and grant the benefit of the doubt. Also, value misinterpretations for what they are. They might not be what was intended, but they can still be useful. Or at the very least entertaining.
To seperate this from the general discussion, I just want to take a moment to lay bare what my own intentions are when writing the Leandre comics. And really, at it's core it is just me telling the types of stories I would like to see more of myself. I try to avoid political statements with these comics, since that is not what they are about. I am not smart enough of a person to understand politics, social issues, or anythign of the sort, so I don't intend to make comments about them. The prime objective with these comics is always entertainment.
Obviously, I also portray some of the things that I am passionate about, first of all being science, critical thinking and a general attitude of open-mindedness and curiosity. I feel like all of these subjects are dealt with on a very surface level, since they come second to just having a fun time on my list of priorities, but I do hope they can inspire people to look more into those things and maybe learn something from people who actually know what they are talking about. Really, I am not taking any of this too seriously, and I am probably horribly misrepresenting the science of archeology terribly in my latest comic.
Also, I feel like I'd be amiss not to adress the uncomfortable topic of all the non-consensual sexual themes throughout all of my work at this point. I do hope it is clear that I do not in any way advocate for any of that. All of that is meant to build an escapist fantasy only and nothing beyond that. I really think that was already clear to everyone, but I feel like it needed to be mentioned at this point. Fantasizing about anything is fine as long as it stays a fantasy.
So yeah, other than the art of story-telling itself, really nothing in the comics is really meant to be taken too serious. I am telling a story because telling this story is fun to me. I hope you enjoy it for what it is too!
But yeah, part of it might be that I know you personally so I know you wouldn't really be trying to say much besides 'think critically num nuts' xD but I think you convey that pretty well ^^ but agree, everyone should make sure to draw there own opinions on things, cause people these days really don't do that enough...
Misunderstandings are, alas, inevitable, especially when you post to a platform that's accessible more or less world-wide. For good or ill, the culture you're brought up in, and even the era you grew up in, can shape your thinking somewhat. Maybe there's some cultural norm in your country that you take for granted, but which, to someone else, might seem weird or contrary to how they were raised. Maybe you grew up at a time when certain issues were viewed as critical that are seen as trivial or entirely a relic of the past now. While I do think it's good to be aware of how your stories can be interpreted and to try to make your intent as clear as possible, and while I firmly reject the Death of the Author view point, I think there comes a point where you just have to write the story you want to write and let people see what they will.
And, finally, while I think it's likely that archaeology is probably a bit different in real life than it is in your stories, well, sometimes you have to go with what's entertaining over what's realistic. It's much more fun to see 'Le trek through an Indiana Jones-style temple with ancient traps and mysterious warnings, and confront a mysterious statue, than it is to watch her sit and patiently dig up artifacts for hours or days on end. Though I do appreciate the fact that she's interested in preserving things rather than simply smashing whatever lies between her and the treasure.