The Death of the Author and how it affects History

You know, George Lucas has said that the ewoks in Return of the Jedi were based on the Vietcong, which angers a lot of Conservative critics. However, the movie was released in 1983 when the Russians were invading Afghanistan and the US was backing the resistance, which is what the Battle of Endor feels more like. Speaking of Star Wars, in real life, Harrison Ford is nothing like Han Solo, Indiana Jones, or President James Marshall from "Air Force One." His movie characters are very popular with conservatives, but the man himself, being a liberal Democrat (par for the course in Hollywood) is not. But once he dies, will people forget his personal life and only remember his movies?

I think you are failing to take into account these works not only as 'art' but also as escapist media and as marketable products. When someone watches The Cosby Show, they will not, in all likelihood, view it as a work of art to be critically analyzed, but as a form of entertainment. If they viewed the show critically, they may not lose any enjoyment, but if they simply watch it to be entertained they can't but associate the work with the actor, which makes them unable to enjoy it.
The second point of the work as a marketable product views the interpretation of the work as entirely irrelevant: people do not choose to not watch something because they are critically opposed to it, but because consuming it would support someone financially who is committing something the consumer considers wrong. Let's assume Orson Scott Card had explicitly said he supported gay rights during the writing and publishing of his books, but had begun writing hate speech when production of the movies started. In this case people would still have boycotted the books and the movie, even though they were created under a pro-gay rights worldview of the author.

I agree with this idea in the way you apply it. But I've seen this idea taken way too far. For instance I've seen people take statements like "I don't see color" and try to say that this means the person is racist because if they don't see race they don't see racist behavior. Clearly they MEAN that they don't use race/skin color as a metric to evaluate other people on a character level. I think in cases like this, the person should be allowed to defend their statement on the basis of intent.

lol i dont think micheal jackson killed himself. great video though.

umm about Michael Jackson...no just no. I HATE pop music with a burning passion. I never could listen to a MJ song without getting boren. His music was not tarnished by the scandals because anyone with half an eyeball could see that the accusations raised against him were BULLSHIT and the sly lying sensationalistic mainstream (and not so mainstream) media was just looking for an outrageous story. This is what happened with Trump (and I am no Trump supporter), I mean what didnt they call him? Hitler, racist, homophobic, transphobic, islamophobic, sexist and probably some more I missed. The public opinion is not something that can be easily molded by the media in our time. There is the internet now, and everyone can do research and the only ignorant people are the willfully ignorant.

It's not possible to separate Crosby from his work because the work is visual art. That's him on screen, we're not reading his words. Especially in the case of family comedy where the audience has to like the comedian and accept him as a plausibly wholesome person

Using the word homophobia should be unbecoming of you. Nobody is homophobic. A phobia is in irrational fear that is usually expressed by exaggerated and exuberant physical response such as screaming and running away from a cockroach. I doubt he screams and runs away from gay people knocking down every lamp and chair on his way to safety.

Don't broadcast the rhetoric of the social justice warrior. This politically correct vernacular needs to die.

How does "Death of the Author" effect history we know to be incorrect? Two examples are the 300 Spartans in the "Battle of Thermopylae," and how many believe that the Jews were the only one who died in the Concentration Camps.

MJ Was Killed, he did not kill himself.

I think it would be interesting if writers were put under the same process as art students, where you must write artist statements for your works, as I've wrote far longer than I have painted, I found the reason for needing to add an external piece of writing regarding the work to be somewhat signifigant for further reading to an audience that is interested in the author's perspectives and opinions, while the ability to tell a story is the base to a great storyteller, I think if it was standardised for Author's to write seperate short essays on their works to help people further understand specifically what the author wanted to tell. Imagine if we had this kind of thing for books like TKAMB, c.s lewis, tolkein, tolstoy even, just short summaries no larger than like 5k (pretty much the equivelent of "literature notes" but the author does them. As a writer I am 100% down to make this a standard as I dont even fully know what I was on about in my floppy manuscripts.

personally i like shadow series more..

Thank you for introducing me to this concept. It seems to work in wider contexts as well - if you like someone, you will interpret their actions in a positive light, and if you dislike someone, you will interpret their actions in a negative light.
It seems to be related to confirmation bias.

Michael Jackson didn't kill himself. He died because of medication that his Dr. was prescribing him. His Dr. was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served 2 years in prison.
For a guy who's so fierce about getting the facts straight, I'm a little surprised you didn't do your homework on this one.....

the more reliable...a book of autobiography or a peer reviewed book by a scholar of that person? the latter

Well, Id suggest that you got it worng. In my opinion, as Long as youre good enough at what you so, and beloved enough as Well, you can so whatever you want. You will still not have to cope with the consequences of your wrongdoing since so many people Like you. Eg. Elvis and precilla Presley vs. Any case with a similar Situation but where the offender is Not a legend(even if for the wrong reasons, but thats a different Story)

Hey, Cypher!
I really like your channel - you're doing some nice work!
When you brought up Michael Jackson and you said that one of the reasons he wasn't impacted as much by the scandals was because "his music was never perceived as holding any kind of greater meaning". You afterwards say that they're not texts to draw existential statements from.
It's not that I'm any huge MJ fan or anything, but I believe you do music a disservice here, because a lot of his songs are about political and environmental issues. Examples could be Heal the World or Black Or White. Music holds meaning as well and I was wondering how one would go about deconstructing a piece of music where the literal text only plays a factor in it. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Kind regards
A historically and musically interested viewer.

PS
Keep up the good work and good luck with the Ph.D.

Jackson acquitted on all charges. That you would believe & parrot the mainstream media surely demonstrates a lack of critical thinking. Believing media lies is partly why Iraq was destroyed.

Jackson killed himself? How many more errors are there in your work. Sloppy.

Love your videos, and love that you're also from SLO! I love that little Carnegie library :-)

You said Michael Jackson music has no meaning that his work is just something to dance too! That is wrong in a lot of his song there are song about the environment, feeding poor children and helping the poor, looking at your self and being a better person. Some of MJ songs, Man in the mirror, Heal the World, We Are the World ( song written to bring awareness Africa), they don't really care about us, and Black and White Earth Song, just to name a few

For once, I disagree with you fundamentally. “Death of the author” helps us benefit from the good works of very flawed people, but doesn’t work as an absolute. It’s better tempered with some context about the author. You like Orson Scott Card, and you’re being defensive, maybe. I get it; I like Pantera...but maybe nobody should take in Hitler’s speeches without ANY author’s context, no one should take in what Jordan Peterson says about human suffering without the knowledge that he takes antidepressants long term.You’re better off listening to Eazy E rapping about having raw doggin’ hoes with the added context that he died of AIDS.

Michael Jackson's scandal was faked, and no I saw all the media bullshit a few years after his death that was exceptionally fake.

the thing about the death of the author is that if the intent of the author is not valid, then the intrepretations of the reader is not valid either, because it to is just another intent that might not reflect the meaning of the work... for example: *what is really the face meaning of "all men are created equal"? well no mention of women... so are they equal to men?

You argument contradicts with itself. Saying that the reason Michael's work remained separate from his slandered reputation is because his work does not carry much weight , contradicts the reason as to why Cosby's work is being attached to his reputation. Both of their works do not carry significant weight: one's is pop music, the other's is comedy. The actual reason is because Michael was acquitted and the majority of people presume that he was innocent and... He's dead, while Cosby is presumed to be guilty by the majority.

I don't know if you've read Jorge Luis Borges beautiful short story "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote". It illustrates that point wonderfully. It's bout a man, Pierre Menard, who decides to write a book that is, word by word, a copy of Cervantes' Quixote. But he's a 20th century man, so the book has a very different meaning.

Shut up man, linguistics and literature for ever! >:(

Excuse me but what? MJ had a lot of deep, meaningful songs, and the allegations were entirely unfounded. The latter is the difference between those cases

read some of Scott’s “homophobic” rants.

...I fail to see what he said was wrong.

I have this same relationship to the films of Roman Polanski. I say this as someone that believes in a middle ground. If one can't watch his films because of what he did. Then they should not watch his films. If, on the other hand someone can separate the art from the artist, that is fine to. I don't think either is a bad choice, as it's subjective to the person. As a film buff, I respond to his work, because especially between Repulsion through Chinatown, his work his brilliant. Rosemary's baby is one of the best horror films ever made. Chinatown is freaking Chinatown. Not saying I like all his work, but for a time he was a top film maker. I also think he should be in jail. For me it's not separating the art from the artist. It's viewing the films as their own thing, irregardless of what baggage the director brings in his life. Joss Whedon is a smug asshole, I still love The Avengers. Mel Gibson is a racist, I still think Braveheart is brilliant. On and on. To me, rather an artist is problematic or not is irrelevant to the work itself. That doesn't mean they should or should not face consequences for their actions. It just means the work is out there, a part of our culture, and if we we're worried about the creators as people, we could not enjoy and appreciate anything, ever.

How about artists who purposefully include their lives and thoughts on their art like Kanye West? If we remove the artist from the art, it's like removing most of the content.

Is that t definition of "grok"? I always understood it more as coming to understand something so well, that one has completely internalized it, and that this often is a process th as t takes quit a bit of time. It was a Martian concept and it was shown that Martians were so slow and deliberate that they often took many years to decide to act on a matter.

Sorry cypher but the Chris Benoit fallout proves this idea kind of dead

But did Derrida and Barthes suggest that the death of the author theory should apply to all authors -- including modern historians -- or just fiction writers?

You can never separate the art from the artist because the art is ultimately a product of their outlook and their psyche.

So how about Jimmy Saville? I don't think anyone wants to watch anything with him in it, even now he's dead. And his crimes were connected to his TV shows including abuse on sets of shows he did, so detaching him from his work is much more problematic.

Thank you.

Does this apply to speeches and quotes? Mlk or Kennedy and his moon speech or the Gettysburg address? I understand why it's useful and why you would want it but it also seems as though it could be somewhat limiting, like understanding that ayn Rand grew up in communist poverty goes a long way twords understanding how somebody could write all the crazy shit she wrote XD i mean I could certainly just say "that's some crazy shit" but if some aspect of the authors background can potentially give me some degree of insight as to where it MAY have come from I think that's useful to think about, it's certainly not a certainty but it does seem more than useless, even though I get how speculation down that path could quickly get out of control (apologies for my poor oversimplified example)

As a society, we have lost the ability to be able to separate the fact that what they do for a living is just that their JOB! No matter what that job is, be it acting, writing, music, chef, or whatever they do that

If the intent is factually documented, you cant really ignore it

How about George Orwell? I have read a couple of books of his essays. They provide us a lot of context for Animal House, and 1984.

I am not familiar with Orson Scott Card. Did/do Michael Jackson and Bill Cosby have programs they want to advance? Maybe Robert Heinlein was too subtle with his messages.

Generally good but with songs like Heal the World, Black or White, Earth Song, They Don’t Care About Us, Man in the Mirror, I’m not sure that Michael Jackson only put out fun songs without explicit political messages or thought-provoking lyrics.

btw your videos on the Civil War were of great help for a school essay not too long ago, so thanks

I would suggest avoiding lumping in constitutional interpretation into this theory because one of the schools of thought on constitutional interpretation and on legislative interpretation in general is the intent.