That wasn't on purpose :D I mean, i think having personal doubt there is totally fine, though imo it speaks to the current climate mostly, i am just wondering if it should be like it is i guess.

Black and white is always easier, but i am not a fan of binary thinking or dogmatism, i think nuance is ultimately a lot more healthy. Power differences, unequality, all the things we'd ideally would not like to have in our world are important to keep in mind, but i also think we overcorrect a little much here and there at times, and for something like cultural ideas i find that to be the case too. The difference between appropriation and appreciation (these are the two ideas broadly speaking right) can be rather slim, and as i said before, i think fundamentally we exchange culture all the time anyway, gatekeeping it too much seems just not that useful to me.
There are exceptions and reasons to do so at times, but as i said, i think this has to be linked to harm (for example if people's 'appropriation' leads to clichés which harm the initial group).
I appreciate the conversation though, thanks for the little exchange here haha. (gonna have to emphasize once more, i agree with your death of the author idea for sure).

Sure, but not every instance is the same. If there is some white girl wanting to wear a kimono because she thinks it is beautiful, where is the harm? I don't really see it.
If there is some white celebrity who thinks they really should wear cornrows for their hip hop music video, then it becomes a little more interesting.
I tend to think in general there needs to be real harm being done, now the problem ofc arises when we think that someone being offended is already enough, which i generally do not agree with (i think it can be a good reason, but mostly when it correlates with other harm).
In any case, i think this is a highly nuanced topic and a lot depends on the specific case imo, which doesn't really seem to be the general opinion on it though, it feels more dogmatic than that and supposes some form of 'ownership' i just cannot agree with.

Sorry for this tangent, it was just one small part of your comment haha.

It's not stupid at all, it's an angle a lot of people probably haven't thought about as a reading even though it is quite literally what is happening.

I just wonder why people think that tbh, why has the 'culture' (who is that 'culture' to begin with? It's definitely not a monolith) the final say?
They didn't even create it, most people just adopt what their environment teaches them.
The thing is, there are many complexities to this which we probably don't wanna go into now, i can see certain aspects of it (say a dominant 'group' taking something from a less 'dominant' one and potentially monetizing it in ways the minority could not; but that speaks to my commodification angle too), but imo a lot of the talk about CA is a little silly these days too. Idk.
I agree though, it would be wonderful if it was less of an issue, i guess that is our common hope :D

I am not sure there has to be precedence per se (though that depends on context too). I tend to think that the work speaks for itself, and any rational person can look at the text (and potentially subtext) and derive the intended meaning from it, but also possibly add additional meaning which the work itself gives room for (my example was to showcases one reason why additional meaning can exist).
In my example i'd definitely go as far and say that the meaning of said slang takes a certain level of precedence over the intent, it doesn't matter if i didn't know about it, the meaning is established already.
Would you disagree with that?

I just don't think that 'cultural appropriation' is a useful concept per se. You talk about ownership, and people generally do, but i find that notion absurd. Some cultural ideas and behaviors come from certain people, but there is no ownership there. They have their meaning, and i honestly wish that they can keep it intact if they so desire (that is the biggest problem with the commodification of everything in a global consumerist society, criticism on that angle i can somewhat understand if it becomes too extreme), but the idea that wearing a kimono is disrespectful in itself if one doesn't take the time to 'appreciate' the culture it came from, that's inane to me.
Culture is always fluid and in exchange the moment two different 'cultures' interact in some way or form. People like some aspects, they adopt it, fuse it, do whatever. That's how it always was and it's how it always will be.

Do you think intention is all there is to meaning? That doesn't seem to be true. If i write something which generally gets interpreted a certain way but i am unaware of it (some slang or whatever), then i might not have intended the meaning, but it still exists.
In the same way a piece of art can have meaning which is outside of the author's intent.

> Fiction doesn't belong to one person the way an entire culture's creations belong to that culture

I don't think culture belongs to anyone either. Culture is just shared behavior and even within a cultural group there will be differences based on region, etc.
With that being said, i agree with your idea regarding the death of the author anyway, i just do not agree with cultural appropriation very much as a concept (though i found op's read interesting anyway)

Don't jump around, your argument was that it most likely wasn't burton's intent and thus it's a stupid take.
Own your comment, don't obfuscate with nonsense after that.

I agree, if an original interpretation bugs you so much, you really should unsubscribe.

For all the hate you get, i think this is an original pov and honestly fits quite well, thanks for that!