Ha. Nicely done.
The funny thing about this is that in 90% of discussions about author intent, I'm the dude saying it matters more than the other people in the discussion. But that's usually more in the context of "what was the message of the film?" or "what did X mean/signify?" Where I care less about intent is when it's used to excuse critiques about execution. They might as well say "it doesn't matter if it was bad because they intended to make a good film."
Anyway, I think we agree here. I'm not fully on board with the primacy of intent or with dismissing it entirely, but I care about it a lot more when evaluating message or meaning than quality, which is a weird distinction but hopefully you know what I mean.
The funny thing about this is that in 90% of discussions about author intent, I'm the dude saying it matters more than the other people in the discussion. But that's usually more in the context of "what was the message of the film?" or "what did X mean/signify?" Where I care less about intent is when it's used to excuse critiques about execution. They might as well say "it doesn't matter if it was bad because they intended to make a good film."
Anyway, I think we agree here. I'm not fully on board with the primacy of intent or with dismissing it entirely, but I care about it a lot more when evaluating message or meaning than quality, which is a weird distinction but hopefully you know what I mean.