The odd one out

i waited 75 years and all i got was this lousy t-shirt

(trigger warnings: race, intelligence, anorexia, economics, secondary sources)

Mutualistic pairs for an “Odd Couples” Valentine’s program at my work. (Why do so many of my big work projects revolve around Valentine’s programs?)

When I was young, and took myself Very Seriously As An Artist, I used to think that art could be objectively good or bad. 

I don’t think so anymore. Instead, I think the evaluation of all art is far more subjective than is entirely comfortable.

I mean, obviously, I still think my taste is super excellent… I’ve just come to understand that many people don’t share my excellent taste, no matter how educated or informed it is. They think their contradictory taste is super excellent, and even have good reasons for thinking so. I concede they are correct. And I am also correct. We’re all correct! Because we are all judging based on different premises.

That’s not to say you can’t quantify art in various more or less objective ways. If you set out a list of criteria, you can assess art against it, and end up with assessments that are fairly consistent. This is how art tends to be included in the Academy, for instance, and be part of a formal curriculum.

It’s also supposedly how art critics have a job. They assess new art, like films, against an agreed upon set of criteria, and come to a conclusion about whether it’s good or bad art, worth seeing or not, based on how well the art meets those criteria.

But here’s the thing about judging art that way… the criteria are much less objective than we like to think they are. I’m a fan of plot and characterisation, so I tend to agree with the kinds of formal criteria that end up being used for fiction within universities. Of course, I’ve also had credible academics tell me that any science fiction that meets the criteria isn’t SF because it’s too good. Just stop and think about that for a minute.

To unpack that, there are two biases working in any formal system of judging art, not within every critic, but just as part of the systemic workings:

the biases in what is considered “good” in any given era (that is, who gets to make that choice, who has the power); and

the biases in the people applying the criteria to a piece of art (as in the SF isn’t SF example, but more importantly, when the art is made by a woman or person of colour or someone else who Shouldn’t Make Art… at least in the eyes of the particular critic making the judgement).

Those “objective” criteria we set so much stock by are usually, still, even now, based on the things old white dudes value as art. And despite my love of well-constructed plot and nuanced characterisation, I have come to understand that sometimes there’s more value in breaking the rules than sticking to them, when the rules reaffirm the inequalities that are such a burden for so many real people in the world.

Which is a long-winded way of saying: you can tell me that Venom is a bad film all day long, Anon Commenters. But so far you don’t bring any convincing arguments to show me:

why your criteria for “badness” are better than mine for “passableness” (I’m not even arguing for “goodness” for heaven’s sake), or even what your criteria for badness are, and 

why I should agree with the critics’ taste over the tastes of a bunch of feminist-leaning women and queers (ie. fandom), not to mention, of course, my own super-excellent and well-educated taste.

Give me actual reasons, as opposed to “it’s objectively bad” and “tone issues” and maybe we can have a conversation. I’ll start by saying I concede there are pacing issues, and one major hole in Venom’s characterisation (we aren’t given enough of him falling in love with Eddie for his motivation in the climax to be entirely believable). I don’t think those things are enough on their own to make the movie “bad” because there are other things of value that balance them out, like a male lead who emotes all over the place.

In short: I’d appreciate it a lot if you stop parroting film school talking points, and actually think. You probably have good reasons for thinking the film is bad, and I would genuinely like to hear them, even though I’ll probably not agree with you. But repeating the same tired phrases over and over will not advance our understanding of each other or the film in any useful way, and it’s frankly a waste of my time when I could be reading Venom fanfic instead.

I had it in my back pack because I did my final thesis on the evolution of mythology and folk tails into fantasy and sci-fi and the societal importance of telling stories (before anyone asks, no I don’t have it, I lost it when I moved continents), and I used Terry Pratchett because there wasn’t a single humanitarian issue the man did not touch on.

Which I told him. And then he kind of floundered and went “ah, well but, it’s…well I mean it’s not exactly high brow”, like neither the fuck was Shakespeare or Dickens you self-important turnip. Dickens was literally selling his stories by the chapter. He was the popular author of his time. Shakespeare was too, he fucking made up words and phrases all the time because the language he needed to express himself didn’t exist in the way he needed it too.

So I had a job interview today and there was a dude in the waiting room who was chatting up every AFAB person in the waiting room whether they responded or not, and kept going “Hey I’m real good at Origami Swans you want one?” and then writing his number on sticky notes before making paper cranes and handing them to his latest target before turning his attention to the next lady in his vicinity.  A little sad, a lot annoying, but unlikely to be dangerous.  Whatever.

Dude gets to me.  We have half a conversation where he asks me personal questions and I don’t look up from my phone.  I get my “Swan”.  I’m the last AFAB person in the room so he’s kinda sitting there.

I get to a post about a friend needing moral and/or spiritual support before a medical procedeure, so my ADHD ass goes Oh hey, we have an animal effigy we could sacrifice to the relevant gods! So I take out my lighter and burn the swan roughly 23 seconds after the dude gave it to me, and crush the ashes in my hand because I belatedly realize there’s no sink for me to throw this in.  Oh well.  Purell the ashes off.

I look up.  Dude, and everyone else in the waiting room is staring at me.

“You, uh.  Smoke?” Dude tries.

What I Meant To Say: “No I just carry a lighter as a holdover from survival camp as a kid, and if I’m wearing synthetic fabrics that start to ravel, I can use the flame to melt them a bit so they stop.”

What I Actually Said: “No I just have one in case I need to set something on fire.”

I put the lighter away.  The hiring manager comes out and calls my name.  I go back and have what I think was a reasonably sucessful job interview.  I come back out.

Dude, and half of the other candidates are GONE.

“You will pay for this, Karen.”