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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gradine" data-source="post: 7511187" data-attributes="member: 57112">I feel I have been quite clear that I am speaking (a) primarily as an American, and (b) I do not believe that said silence is always or even often intentional. But intent is only part of the equation (I don't believe, as many of my political stripe do, that intent is completely irrelevant); impact matters too.Note that the message is always in the eye of the beholder. Again, I don't believe in the "Death of the Author" or that an author's intent is completely irrelevant; but in most cases the themes and message of a piece is fairly self-evident, and usually fairly innocuous (though not, I would propose, apolitical). That said, you've pointed out an exception that I wasn't clear needed to be addressed, but since you bring it up: obviously any big-P Political statement you make in your particular context (time & place) is only going to be relevant to your political context. I don't expect Shakespeare to address the #MeToo movement, for example; I would think that would be a given. I do not read Shakespeare, or ancient Athenian plays, for their takes on their particular context's big-P Politics (at least, I don't outside of academics). These works remain largely relevant because of what they have to say about the human condition; that's a politics of a kind on its own, just... not big-p Politics. Also, not all works need to say everything at all times. It would be impossible for any work to actually do this. This is another point where I tend to break with others I share a political inclination with; but I don't feel that it's necessary for a work that addresses racism to necessarily also address sexism, for instance. A work can focus on, be about, one single big thing. Nor does it have to focus on any hot-button big-P Political issue. A story might not have anything to say about modern identity politics, but it might have a lot to say about, say, mutual respect, or empathy, or the virtues of the communal good, or individualism. A work that is very conspicuously not trying to say anything, however? That, I feel, speaks volumes.</blockquote>

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