(no subject)

[jazzfish]

Minor revelation: satire relies heavily on intent. Hence, if intent is bunk, then satire is worthless, because who knows it's satire? Especially older satire, such as A Modest Proposal; it's trivially easy to scream "You monster!" and ignore it.
(Thanks to Prog for sparking this train of thought.)

Comments

intent is Zen

[(Anonymous)]

But if everyone who reads the text thinks it is not satire even though the creator intends it to be satire, is it actually satire?
Or is it just a tree falling in the woods?

Conversely, if everyone interprets it as satire but it wasn't intended to be satire, has the creator made a sound?
Isn't this what marks the best "bad" movies?

If satire is quality that must be both imbued in a text by intent of the creator and perceived in the text by the audience, does that mean the intent must be perceived without interpretation by the audience? That would mean higher thought is bunk, which is far more disturbing than intent being bunk.

JL