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Posts tagged Criticism

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Pon-chan no Yatsu: ghostlightning: One of the pleasures in writing about anime and manga...

ghostlightning:

One of the pleasures in writing about anime and manga is when readers discover something to enjoy in what you enjoy (therefore recommend).

However, the nature of attacking what you enjoy, belongs in another dimension of fandom. See the terrible behavior of the Gundam fandom…

The money quote:

Basically, when you express a negative opinion on something, you may be helping someone choose what to consume. And that’s alright.

But when, for example, a reviewer turns a negative review into a diatribe vs. the fans of whatever they don’t like (“if you like this, there’s something wrong with you [ergo there’s nothing wrong with me, as I don’t like it]”), that reviewer is doing it wrong. It isn’t about enjoying art (or not) anymore; it’s about willful refusal to empathize, and that’s something I tend not to tolerate so well.

There we go. Telltale signs of this kind of behavior is the presentation of notions that the naysayers deem as self-evident, and even objectively so.

Indeed there is a refusal to empathize, and truly the opposite of empathy: the intent to put down, ridicule, and act superior towards others.

I’ve made diatribes at certain shows: The Prince of Tennis, Bincho-Tan, and notably Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam. In all cases I endeavored to present (directly or indirectly) how the issues I have are my own, borne out of my possibly unique context experiencing the works.

In hindsight, instead of refusing to empathize with those who would enjoy these shows, I seek empathy for having a negative experience with a show — an activity undertaken to acquire a positive experience. 

Here’s a favorite phrase of mine I hear from tough-guy pundits:

“This show has [element which the reviewer hates] which means everyone will like it. You all suck and I hate you.”

The phrase is presented in a tongue-in-cheek manner, or it’s vaguely implied to be satirical or whatnot, but I don’t buy it. It may be a genuine schtick, but it’s not something I particularly find fun. 

Filed under Criticism Meta

7 notes &

pontifus: Which is to say that, while I never really feel the need to justify my preferences that much (my mantra being “be critical of what you like, but never apologize for it”), I think that insisting upon the rightness of my dislike or dissatisfaction (and, by extension, the wrongness of someone else’s satisfaction) would be an exercise in futility, if not simply meanness. Any exceptions I make are, generally speaking, intended purely for the sake of entertainment, and should be taken even less seriously than my only semi-serious standard would suggest. This graph also concedes that my writing about things I like in a certain way does amount to a kind of justification, if we count my wanting people to see what I see in things I like as “justification,” and I guess we should. Indeed, it’s something I’ve come to terms with as an advocate of anime and my favorites in it.  You can’t expect people to accept your advocacy/recommendations uncritically. It is unsatisfying when they do. One of the pleasures in writing about anime and manga is when readers discover something to enjoy in what you enjoy (therefore recommend).  However, the nature of attacking what you enjoy, belongs in another dimension of fandom. See the terrible behavior of the Gundam fandom in all its retarded ugliness in Ngee Khiong’s raegquit post. A sterling example would be the massive hate directed at the release of the Perfect Grade Strike Freedom Gundam kit, which has little to do with the quality of the toy but has mainly to do with hatred for the pilot of the Gundam in Gundam SeeD the anime. You’ll also see this in the hate for shows like K-ON! and Code Geass. There’s an inauthenticity to this behavior, and it’s something we as hobbyist writers are loath to deal with. It sucks our energy because we are expending so much on something as you say, is just about entertainment. It is the interests of entertainment of some fans to participate in this kind of “criticism”, inasmuch as blogging your heart out for the shows you like and love is for you. This is why we can’t have nice things.

pontifus:

Which is to say that, while I never really feel the need to justify my preferences that much (my mantra being “be critical of what you like, but never apologize for it”), I think that insisting upon the rightness of my dislike or dissatisfaction (and, by extension, the wrongness of someone else’s satisfaction) would be an exercise in futility, if not simply meanness. Any exceptions I make are, generally speaking, intended purely for the sake of entertainment, and should be taken even less seriously than my only semi-serious standard would suggest.

This graph also concedes that my writing about things I like in a certain way does amount to a kind of justification, if we count my wanting people to see what I see in things I like as “justification,” and I guess we should.

Indeed, it’s something I’ve come to terms with as an advocate of anime and my favorites in it. 

  1. You can’t expect people to accept your advocacy/recommendations uncritically.
  2. It is unsatisfying when they do.

One of the pleasures in writing about anime and manga is when readers discover something to enjoy in what you enjoy (therefore recommend). 

However, the nature of attacking what you enjoy, belongs in another dimension of fandom. See the terrible behavior of the Gundam fandom in all its retarded ugliness in Ngee Khiong’s raegquit post.

A sterling example would be the massive hate directed at the release of the Perfect Grade Strike Freedom Gundam kit, which has little to do with the quality of the toy but has mainly to do with hatred for the pilot of the Gundam in Gundam SeeD the anime.

You’ll also see this in the hate for shows like K-ON! and Code Geass. There’s an inauthenticity to this behavior, and it’s something we as hobbyist writers are loath to deal with. It sucks our energy because we are expending so much on something as you say, is just about entertainment.

It is the interests of entertainment of some fans to participate in this kind of “criticism”, inasmuch as blogging your heart out for the shows you like and love is for you.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

Filed under Criticism Anime Manga Fandom