In my mind, intent matters in some ways and at some levels, and it doesn't at others.
Intent doesn't matter when someone is being hurt, especially to the person being hurt. Which Bear acknowledges.
But because Bear's intent was to make (probably mostly white, even if that wasn't her conscious intent) people think in new and different ways about the issues of freedom and slavery/servitude, she did fail better, if you will, than lots of other people who have used the same kinds of imagery without having an intent to examine/question/subvert that imagery.
You can learn from books that fail in certain areas, I think, especially if the writer was trying to do something good.
Communication, even communication about what went wrong, is easier if the person's intent was to communicate with sensitivity.
Does that make sense? (This is an issue I struggle with, and it's particularly hard in this case because I really enjoyed the books, mostly for some of the other themes Bear was playing with (my field of specialisation in university was Arthurian literature and there's lots of that in the books), but I totally understand the criticisms being made and the hurt being felt.
no subject
Intent doesn't matter when someone is being hurt, especially to the person being hurt. Which Bear acknowledges.
But because Bear's intent was to make (probably mostly white, even if that wasn't her conscious intent) people think in new and different ways about the issues of freedom and slavery/servitude, she did fail better, if you will, than lots of other people who have used the same kinds of imagery without having an intent to examine/question/subvert that imagery.
You can learn from books that fail in certain areas, I think, especially if the writer was trying to do something good.
Communication, even communication about what went wrong, is easier if the person's intent was to communicate with sensitivity.
Does that make sense? (This is an issue I struggle with, and it's particularly hard in this case because I really enjoyed the books, mostly for some of the other themes Bear was playing with (my field of specialisation in university was Arthurian literature and there's lots of that in the books), but I totally understand the criticisms being made and the hurt being felt.