But, seriously, I genuinely enjoy trashy, extremely problematic stuff like 50 Shades. I am curious to see a poll, too, to get a sampling of things that provoke, “I DO NOT GET WHY SO MANY PEOPLE LIKE THIS THE CONTEMPTIBLE FOOLS.”
I cannot participate, but things that give me hives off the top of my head are Sex In The City and professional sports.
But, it’s usually not the what but the why that makes me insane and contemptuous. Like, I don’t mind if you watch hours of reality TV, but you better have a damn good reason, even if it’s not easy to articulate. I have to trust you see something I don’t, the metabolizing of which is gratifying to you in a me-approved way. /channeling-my-most-pathologically-judgmental-aspects-of-self
This made me hate Sex In The City less, though I’m still suspicious:
Off the top of my head, the “Transformers” cartoon series. I know a bunch of adults who actually like it, and it’s won many of the major awards for writing for animated series. I have tried to watch it. To me it seems much worse than I’d imagined, not even sophisticated enough for kids younger than its target audience, with characters I might’ve been able to stomach at age three but not at six. Nice graphics, if you like hyper-realistic overly-dramatic CGI more than style, character, or integration of visual presentation with story.
Wil Eisner’s comics. He’s known as the grand old man at whose altar all comic artists and writers kneel. I’ve read many of his comics, old (The Spirit) and new (A Contract With God), and they all had bad stories with bad characters, badly told. “The Spirit” had bad artwork besides, and made superhero comics look like great literature by comparison—and it came out around the same time as EC Comics, which were not great literature, but still a hell of a lot better.
Hmmm… I haven’t really been following the franchise, so...
::does some research::
According to TV Tropes, Transformers Animated was in 2007. The current ones are “Transformers Prime” (which has CGI) and “Transformers Rescue Bots” (aimed at slightly younger children, with an animation style similar to MLP:FIM).
Speaking of Transformers, the Transformer movie series is widely held as a touchstone for brainless crap lowest-common-denominator explosions entertainment.
It’s really, really long, and it kind of hooks you once you start, so don’t click unless you can afford to spend several hours reading about Michael Bay.
I tend to agree that almost none of what the reviewer pointed out was put into the movies with the intent she suggests, but that begs the equally interesting question—how did all that stuff get in there? Did the filmmakers do certain this subconsciously? Is it really all in Terry’s imagination?
Anyway, I’m much less quick to write things off as merely “bad,” especially if I notice that my brain keeps returning to them later without any immediately obvious reason.
Well, I don’t think she’s completely wrong about everything, but I think the movies probably have a lot of uncritical borrowing from a wide variety source material. Some of what is uncritically borrowed may be better stuff, and may actually have had some of the subtle intentions she attributes to Bay and crew. And other uncritically borrowed elements are so bad that she can’t imagine someone would borrow them uncritically, and so she assumes too charitably that the badness must be intentional for some subversive purpose. It may not help that she’s not American, so she may not realize that some attitudes which seem extreme to her are common among Americans. I also think she’s too quick to assume that inconsistencies between what Optimus Prime says at various points indicate dishonesty rather than simply sloppy continuity, especially as she herself admits and notes that the continuity is pretty sloppy. Widespread inconsistency certainly helps greatly when someone wants to read their own agenda into something; you can interpret the bits that support your interpretation straight, and then since the bits which don’t support your interpretation can’t be interpreted straight without inconsistency, you can argue that those inconsistent bits must involve some deception.
Anyway, I’m much less quick to write things off as merely “bad,” especially if I notice that my brain keeps returning to them later without any immediately obvious reason.
On this note, I found the film Get Over It reasonably enjoyable but nothing special. But deliberately or not, the plot has some wonderful strange loops, including one which I’ve come to think of as a “strange moebius loop”, and thinking about it after the fact has seriously increased the entertainmet factor.
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That reminded me of the theory that the Highlander movie is an allegory of gay culture, can’t find the source right now so from memory:
The plot is based on a dark secret shared by a secretive group of people that existed forever, all of them men. The secret makes them meet in dark alleys and wave huge phallic symbols at each other. The soundtrack is by Queen.
...except the posts you linked to are much longer and less funny :-(
The idea is to start a thread for people to discuss 50 Shades, or something else perceived as trashy, and try to find what’s likable in it.
The links in this MetaFilter post will make it harder:
http://www.metafilter.com/130778/Im-pretty-sure-Ive-read-this-book-before-but-with-vampires-in-it
Or maybe it won’t.
But, seriously, I genuinely enjoy trashy, extremely problematic stuff like 50 Shades. I am curious to see a poll, too, to get a sampling of things that provoke, “I DO NOT GET WHY SO MANY PEOPLE LIKE THIS THE CONTEMPTIBLE FOOLS.”
I cannot participate, but things that give me hives off the top of my head are Sex In The City and professional sports.
But, it’s usually not the what but the why that makes me insane and contemptuous. Like, I don’t mind if you watch hours of reality TV, but you better have a damn good reason, even if it’s not easy to articulate. I have to trust you see something I don’t, the metabolizing of which is gratifying to you in a me-approved way. /channeling-my-most-pathologically-judgmental-aspects-of-self
This made me hate Sex In The City less, though I’m still suspicious:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/television/2013/07/29/130729crte_television_nussbaum?currentPage=1
Off the top of my head, the “Transformers” cartoon series. I know a bunch of adults who actually like it, and it’s won many of the major awards for writing for animated series. I have tried to watch it. To me it seems much worse than I’d imagined, not even sophisticated enough for kids younger than its target audience, with characters I might’ve been able to stomach at age three but not at six. Nice graphics, if you like hyper-realistic overly-dramatic CGI more than style, character, or integration of visual presentation with story.
Wil Eisner’s comics. He’s known as the grand old man at whose altar all comic artists and writers kneel. I’ve read many of his comics, old (The Spirit) and new (A Contract With God), and they all had bad stories with bad characters, badly told. “The Spirit” had bad artwork besides, and made superhero comics look like great literature by comparison—and it came out around the same time as EC Comics, which were not great literature, but still a hell of a lot better.
There are several different Transformers series. Are you referring to the recent “Transformers Animated”?
I’m referring to whichever one had new episodes in 2012.
Hmmm… I haven’t really been following the franchise, so...
::does some research::
According to TV Tropes, Transformers Animated was in 2007. The current ones are “Transformers Prime” (which has CGI) and “Transformers Rescue Bots” (aimed at slightly younger children, with an animation style similar to MLP:FIM).
Speaking of Transformers, the Transformer movie series is widely held as a touchstone for brainless crap lowest-common-denominator explosions entertainment.
This incredibly long series of posts will make you look at not just Transformers but possibly at movies in a new way.
It’s really, really long, and it kind of hooks you once you start, so don’t click unless you can afford to spend several hours reading about Michael Bay.
OK, I read the posts, and then rewatched one of the movies. I’m unconvinced. A heroic effort, though, and quite interesting!
I tend to agree that almost none of what the reviewer pointed out was put into the movies with the intent she suggests, but that begs the equally interesting question—how did all that stuff get in there? Did the filmmakers do certain this subconsciously? Is it really all in Terry’s imagination?
Anyway, I’m much less quick to write things off as merely “bad,” especially if I notice that my brain keeps returning to them later without any immediately obvious reason.
Well, I don’t think she’s completely wrong about everything, but I think the movies probably have a lot of uncritical borrowing from a wide variety source material. Some of what is uncritically borrowed may be better stuff, and may actually have had some of the subtle intentions she attributes to Bay and crew. And other uncritically borrowed elements are so bad that she can’t imagine someone would borrow them uncritically, and so she assumes too charitably that the badness must be intentional for some subversive purpose. It may not help that she’s not American, so she may not realize that some attitudes which seem extreme to her are common among Americans. I also think she’s too quick to assume that inconsistencies between what Optimus Prime says at various points indicate dishonesty rather than simply sloppy continuity, especially as she herself admits and notes that the continuity is pretty sloppy. Widespread inconsistency certainly helps greatly when someone wants to read their own agenda into something; you can interpret the bits that support your interpretation straight, and then since the bits which don’t support your interpretation can’t be interpreted straight without inconsistency, you can argue that those inconsistent bits must involve some deception.
On this note, I found the film Get Over It reasonably enjoyable but nothing special. But deliberately or not, the plot has some wonderful strange loops, including one which I’ve come to think of as a “strange moebius loop”, and thinking about it after the fact has seriously increased the entertainmet factor.
::clicks link::
It’s paygated. :(
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwcKvxyHHsZ9V18ySTVEblRZSXc/edit?usp=sharing
That reminded me of the theory that the Highlander movie is an allegory of gay culture, can’t find the source right now so from memory:
...except the posts you linked to are much longer and less funny :-(
Now that the series of posts has been continued and completed in a different thread, you might want to update your link to point here.
There’s an eight-strip arc in The Ferrett’s old webcomic in which the characters try watching the old 1980s Transformers cartoon as adults...
There’s an eight-strip arc in The Ferrett’s old webcomic in which the characters try watching the old 1980s Transformers cartoon as adults...