The artist and the art are intrinsically intertwined. Lovecraft’s work (to use a less immediate example) has all of his fears, including racism, built into the bones of the stories. Skillet is fundamentally culty Christian types, once you understand that their more normal music takes on a creepy meaning.
It’s possible to pull unintentional meaning from a work, we do it all the time, but that doesn’t mean the original intent should be disregarded. That idea is practically anti-art imo.
The artist and the art are intrinsically intertwined. Lovecraft’s work (to use a less immediate example) has all of his fears, including racism, built into the bones of the stories. Skillet is fundamentally culty Christian types, once you understand that their more normal music takes on a creepy meaning.
It’s possible to pull unintentional meaning from a work, we do it all the time, but that doesn’t mean the original intent should be disregarded. That idea is practically anti-art imo.