"I'm not going to get into the writer's skills or what he was trying to portray because that's not fair. I can only say what I felt was trying to be portrayed there"
About this Quote
Taylor Dane is performing a careful kind of authority: the authority of the reader who refuses to cosplay as the author. The line opens with a preemptive boundary - "I'm not going to get into the writer's skills" - which sounds deferential but is also a strategic dodge. It sidesteps the culture-war trap where every reaction must be a verdict on craft, morality, or intent. In a moment when audiences are trained to litigate whether a creator "meant well", Dane frames interpretation as embodied response, not prosecution.
The subtext is defensive and humane at once. "Because that's not fair" signals an ethic of reading: judging an imagined intention can be a shortcut to moral certainty, and moral certainty is intoxicating online. By narrowing the claim to "what I felt", Dane protects their critique from being dismissed as a personal attack, while also acknowledging the subjectivity that usually gets smuggled in as objectivity. It's a rhetorical move that tries to keep the conversation in the realm of reception: what landed, what didn't, what the text put into the room.
That final phrase - "trying to be portrayed" - is doing double duty. It grants the work agency (something is being aimed at) without granting the author omniscience (we can't prove the aim). In workshop language, it's a pivot from "intent" to "effect". In our current media climate, that's a quietly radical stance: less mind-reading, more accountability to what the work actually makes people feel.
The subtext is defensive and humane at once. "Because that's not fair" signals an ethic of reading: judging an imagined intention can be a shortcut to moral certainty, and moral certainty is intoxicating online. By narrowing the claim to "what I felt", Dane protects their critique from being dismissed as a personal attack, while also acknowledging the subjectivity that usually gets smuggled in as objectivity. It's a rhetorical move that tries to keep the conversation in the realm of reception: what landed, what didn't, what the text put into the room.
That final phrase - "trying to be portrayed" - is doing double duty. It grants the work agency (something is being aimed at) without granting the author omniscience (we can't prove the aim). In workshop language, it's a pivot from "intent" to "effect". In our current media climate, that's a quietly radical stance: less mind-reading, more accountability to what the work actually makes people feel.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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