Critical Awareness

[butterfly]

canadia_bit mentioned something in the buffy_bitches community that I agree with and feel like talking about.

Oh, but I do have one comment. I really wish people wouldn't write stuff about Buffy if they don't know what they're talking about. I just read a post where someone said that all the foreshadowing in "Lessons" proved that Joss had very little involvement with the episode. WtF? He wrote the damn ep! How much more involved can you get?

And I so agree with that. It always bothers me when critics get stuff wrong. Because if you weren't watching it closely enough to pick up the major things like that, then you were not watching closely enough to give it a fair shake. Like when some of the people hating on Lance call him a 21 year old. Dude, if you didn't get his age, then you probably didn't notice his qualifications one way or another.

I mean, I'm not watching Firefly. Hence, I would not rag on it. I would read things that people have written about it, but because I have not had first-hand experience, I have no right to say what I think of the material itself. Because I haven't seen the material. I mean, logically, if you don't do something, you don't know what it's like. To take a fairly random example, I've never smoked. I can not ever imagine smoking. I don't know the personal upsides or downsides. Therefore, I can't form a complete opinion on smoking. Especially if I don't even pay attention to the material that I could read about smoking. I can be bugged when smoking affects me personally, but the other stuff? I don't know shit about it.

Like, people who say that pop music is crap, yet haven't, on closer questioning, listened to anything beyond the stuff they play at the mall.

And trying something with a closed mind is almost as bad as not trying it at all, if not worse. Because if you're busy thinking that something's bad, you won't notice things that fall outside of your assumptions.

And I'm certainly not saying that anyone's obligated to try anything, just that, if you haven't tried something with an open mind, you really don't have much of a right to bitch about it.

Comments

[jheaton.livejournal.com]

Heh. I just responded to that post.

"Yeah, all he did was write it. He really should try to be more involved! He should have also directed it, served as DP, edited it, composed the music, made the costumes, built the sets, and performed all the roles himself. Damn you Joss Whedon! Damn you to hell!"

Re:

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

And what was with James Marsters doing that commercial break thing? Joss is so screwing us over by not doing it himself!