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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 9694788" data-attributes="member: 7023840">...American Psycho is such a good movie. It's another I could have listed re: people don't understand.That's one of the themes (as opposed to "bits") that I keep returning to, and the reason I keep this quote handy:Any work that employs satire, irony, or sarcasm in a proper and correct fashion requires that some portion of the audience be confused, or even hurt, by the work. Because ambiguity is not a bug, but the central feature of any work that plays with or invokes satire and irony. Simply put, the possibility that the audience can misunderstand the message is necessary to the proper conveyance of the message. This ambiguity is not a bug - it is the distinguishing feature.It's a powerful statement, because of its truth. And that truth is uncomfortable- it speaks both to why satire (irony, sarcasm) is so powerful, but also contradicts the idea that what someone takes from a work, regardless of the intent or actual meaning, is what matters. Which is an idea that I have seen bandied about as if it were an unalloyed truth- but IMO, it is not.Like a lot of things in life, there is nuance and complication. IMO, there must be some breathing room between Popehat's law of goats, and (for example) recognizing that American Psycho is able to be misunderstood by certain people because it is a biting attack on those same people.Anyway, I'm already regretting bring typing what I did, so I'll end it at that.</blockquote>

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