History Main / AccidentalAesop

** Also, the chapter "The Scouring of the Shire" is completely different in style to the rest of the book. Although Tolkien avers that the chapter is "essential plot of the book,foreseen at the outset", to this reader it feels tacked on, and it is hard ''not'' to read a political satire into it.
*** ...though not so essential that the makers of the movie version couldn't choose to exclude it altogether.

* An example so famous it's taught in US History classes is Upton Sinclair's ''The Jungle''. Sinclair was trying to convert Americans to socialism with a NightmareFuel-loaded story about the horrors of capitalism made manifest in [[ImAHumanitarian meat processing plants]]. Unfortunately, all anyone noticed was the description of how sickeningly unsanitary the meat processing plants were, which led to the passage of food inspection laws. Sinclair put it best when he said, "I aimed to hit the nation in the heart, but I hit the stomach instead."

* ''Fahrenheit 451'' is almost universally interpreted to be about government censorship on literature being used to control the population. In his old age, Bradbury has come out insisting that he'd always intended the book to be about [[http://www.laweekly.com/2007-05-31/news/ray-bradbury-fahrenheit-451-misinterpreted/ how crappy television is]]. Critics have wisely chosen to ignore Bradbury's assertions, and a UCLA class drove him from the room by telling him to his face that [[DeathOfTheAuthor he's simply wrong about his own book]].

* [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke Genetic engineering]] is shown as a viable technology in ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' in the person of Julian Bashir. On the other hand, there's the Jack Pack. Lesson: If you prohibit genetic engineering, people will go to {{Back Alley Doctor}}s, with possibly desastrous results.

** It's true; this was perhaps part of the reason that the ong quickly became an underground hit. In fact, in one live recording the crowd cheers louder when he sings the "smoke your pot" line. As it turns out, Captain Jack was really a drug dealer who was always on the street corner near Joel's house as a child. One could presume the protagonist of the song to be a frequent customer of Captain Jack's ("so you stand on the corner in your New English clothes"); but the message ought to be pretty clear from the final verse, that the song is a bit of a cautionary tale (in a live version, he even added the line to the refrain "Oh, Captain Jack could make ya die toonight!"):

** In an anthology, 1960s letters written to Shulz about his new African-American character Franklin are reprinted; because he was introduced during the Civil Rights Movement era, people assumed Shulz was trying to make some sort of statement. No, he said. Franklin's just black.

* George A. Romero did not intend ''NightOfTheLivingDead'' to be about racism. He hired Duane Jones, a black stage actor, to play the hero, because "he gave the best audition." Much of the movie's dialogue was improvised by the actors during filming; the original script was only loosely adhered to. It was only when the film was released that Romero became aware of the full implications of his decision to cast Duane Jones in the role.
** This is the usual result you have a director determined to be colorblind in their casting, movie or otherwise.

** [[RobertAHeinlein Rah-]][[StealthPun rah]]?

** It's not like there aren't liberal corporations. ''Microsoft'' and ''Apple'' are quite liberal. Movie corporations are usually liberal. Hell, even most newspaper and television companies are liberal (FoxNews seems to be an exception, though YourMileageMayVary on whether that's a good thing or not). It is quite possible for crazy people running corporations to want to KillAllHumans.

* Many critics were horrified by the apparent FamilyUnfriendlyAesop in 1992's ''Radio Flyer'', in which a little boy escapes his abusive stepdad by using a flying machine he rigged up with his brother ''instead of'' telling other adults about what's going on: a kid should take care of such problems by his/herself, and fantasy is an acceptable way to handle them. Not an {{Aesop}} that's going to be appreciated. (The whole movie is problematic in terms of how it's supposed to be interpreted; check out its listing at TheOtherWiki.)
* The {{Aesop}} of ''SevenPounds'' is probably not "don't use your cellphone while driving". But that's what at least one critic concluded.
** It also isn't [[spoiler: [[BrokenAesop killing yourself is wrong unless you give your organs away]].]]

* The director's cut of WillSmith version of ''IAmLegend'', in which [[spoiler: Neville returns the zombie girl to her fellow zombies, then abandons New York to look for survivors elsewhere]] has the accidental aesop of "it's bad to offer a cure if the sick people don't want one"; the original book also has this to some extent, but [[spoiler: Neville is the SoleSurvivor of uninfected humans and the zombies have already more or less rebuilt society, so by capturing the infected, only to inadvertently kill them every time a cure fails he's become a CompleteMonster]].

** Unfortunately, doing a bit of research reveals that...this particular one is going to pop up of '''any''' work where they [[ShownTheirWork actually did the research]] about Late Post-Classical Mayan civilization. Most people, however, only really know the ThemeParkVersion of Mesoamerica, which could probably be summarized as 'The ThemeParkVersion of North American indigenous people, but living farther South & with less clothes.'

** THIS troper thinks that the real Aesop is "boys will cry like a damn baby" since at age 36 he still does that whenever he hears that goddamn song!

* Charles M. Schulz (''{{Peanuts}}'') said he only created the [[ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown Great Pumpkin]] as a fun idea: "What if someone believed in a Hallowe'en Santa Claus?" Many saw Linus's efforts as a mockery of the foolishness of religious people, but Schulz himself was quite religious, at least in the early years. Linus's statement that you should never discuss "religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin" shows that he doesn't view the Great Pumpkin as his religion.
** It does suggest, however, that he considers the Great Pumpkin as something ''analogous'' to religion, and therefore important enough to be interpreted as such.

* ''{{WALL-E}}'' is often interpreted as having an [[GreenAesop environmentalist]] or anti-consumerism message, but [[WordOfGod the director stated that]] there was not supposed to be any political message, and the setting was created to justify the story.
** Wonder if he's got an explanation for "Stay the course," then...
*** [[OlderThanTheyThink Bush didn't invent that phrase.]] And in-context, as a statement to the secret captains of [[SpaceIsAnOcean starships]], it makes sense.
**** Especially since it's an actual term in navigation/piloting.
***** Also, [[WordOfGod the director]] has said that the line was ad-libbed by Fred Willard and was not part of the original script.
* Lots of people see lots of [[AynRand Objectivist]] overtones into ''TheIncredibles'', taking Mr. Incredible's complaint that modern society does nothing except celebrate mediocrity as an AuthorTract without noticing the whole "he wants to help people" altruism thing, a concept that Rand rejected.
** [[UsefulNotesObjectivism She didn't always reject it.]]

* Parodied and mocked in-story in ''{{South Park}}'' episode ''The Tale of Scrootie [=McBoogerballs=]'', the kids decide to write the most offensive book ever written, which to their surprise becomes an instant bestseller (even when people don't stop throwing up when they read it), and when some people start saying how pro-X the book is they are inmediately countered by other people who say how anti-X and pro-Y is, much to the annoyance of the kids who only wanted to make an offensive novel.

** Uh, no she did't. [[UsefulNotesObjectivism Learn to read.]]

* Parodied and mocked in-story in ''{{South Park}}'' episode ''The Tale of Scrootie McBoogerballs'', the kids decide to write the most offensive book ever written, which to their surprise becomes an instant bestseller (even when people don't stop throwing up when they read it), and when some people start saying how pro-X the book is they are inmediately countered by other people who say how anti-X and pro-Y is, much to the annoyance of the kids who only wanted to make an offensive novel.

* ''Fahrenheit 451'' is almost universally interpreted to be about government censorship on literature being used to control the population. In his old age, Bradbury has come out insisting that he'd always intended the book to be about [[http://www.laweekly.com/2007-05-31/news/ray-bradbury-fahrenheit-451-misinterpreted/ how crappy television is]]. Critics have wisely chosen to ignore Bradbury's assertions, and a UCLA class drove him from the room by telling him to his face that he's simply wrong about his own book.

* The film adaptation of ''[[ThreeHundred 300]]'' is often interpreted to glorify secular, westernized countries standing against the religious extremism and intolerance of the Middle East. However, some critics pointed out that in the film, Persia is a massive, wealthy empire bent on expanding its influence throughout the world, while the Spartans are a small group of dedicated, zealous fighters who are willing to break the rules of war and martyr themselves to resist the invaders. Modern terrorists would almost certainly interpret Persia as representing the United States and Spartans representing the terrorists.
** except the Spartans weren't breaking the rules of war.
* [[WordOfGod According to]] MelGibson, the intention of ''{{Apocalypto}}'' was to draw paralels between the Modern and Mayan civilizations, and how the latter collapsed because of its greed, political corruption and environmental destruction before being finished off by the Spaniards; however more than one person interpreted the final scene as that the Mayans were so vile and savage that they deserved to be conquered and subjugated, because they needed to be saved from their barbaric ways by [[MightyWhitey the white Europeans]].

** It's not like there aren't liberal corporations. [[Microsoft]] and [[Apple]] are quite liberal. Movie corporations are usually liberal. Hell, even most newspaper and television companies are liberal (FoxNews seems to be an exception, though YourMileageMayVary on whether that's a good thing or not). It is quite possible for crazy people running corporations to want to KillAllHumans.