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Is it bad or do you just not like it?

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LadyBug
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Posted: Mon Jun 9th, 2008 09:33 pm

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A petty annoyance of mine. It drives me crazy when people can't distinguish between an opinion of "dislike" and an objective stance of "most people won't like this."

I'm someone that is passionate about many subjects. I enjoy wrapping myself around a new interest and researching it until I know everything I can. I'd go so far as to say I'm well versed in a variety of subjects.

As an example, on my Netflix cue it shows that I've rated 4000+ titles. I only rate the Netflix DVD's that I've seen, so this means I've seen more than 4000 titles. I consider myself a move buff and well versed in what constitutes a good move or a bad movie.

I firmly believe that there can be a difference between "what I like" and "what is objectively good." I don't like The Godfather movies because I don't like movies about organized crime. I admit that the moves are great but I also admit that I don't like the subject matter of the movies.

On the flip side, I enjoy some really bad movies. Movies that are total fluff. I don't try to claim that my guilty habbit of fluff is "good" but I will say that I enjoy my fluff.

When I'm in my playwrighting development group, I try to sort through what are people's opinions based on their tastes and what is something multiple people agree on as a flaw in my work. This "sorting of perspectives" is made all that much harder because many people don't see the difference between what they "don't like" and what is objectively "bad."

That's just my pet peeve.

Last edited on Mon Jun 9th, 2008 09:34 pm by LadyBug

DWolfman
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Posted: Mon Jun 9th, 2008 10:43 pm

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The only creative writing class I've taken presented the same problem. The "professor" was enamored of Lewis Grizzard at the time, and no matter what was presented to the class, his comments ripped the work to shred and a directive was always included that it should be "more like Lewis Grizzard does." What I assume he was saying (giving him benefit of the doubt) was that we should try to write more of what we know and live, which I've heard quite often, but less nastily. At the time, I had not been introduced to the wonderful world of theatre, and I was trying my hand at science fiction short stories (which I admit, now that I look back on them, were not very good) and I don't think Lewis had ever considered that avenue.

After all the red marks on my submissions, I decided to give the professor's way a shot and wrote a poem about a less-than-capable football player who is abused by an obnoxious coach (DRAGBUTT). No sooner had I finished reading it to the class, I saw his sneer curl and his mouth open (I have no doubt it was to issue verbal red marks) when a lady across the way burst into tears, stood and rushed from the room. The professor with his chin dropped wide open, stared at her the whole way and finally turned and said "I guess that meant something to somebody."

He might have said other things, I'm not sure, because that's that last time I allowed myself to hear him. The lady returned with hankies and said the poem had reminded her so much of her son who put up with similar problems and loved sports so much he cried himself to sleep all through high school.

Kinda long response here, but I agree with you. When I read other people's work, I go to great extremes to keep from letting my personal biases dictate my responses and try to concentrate on what the originator is trying to do. It bothers me (especially when offenders have a say in whether my work is presented -as I've run into before) when others let their opinions run away with what should be a decision of substance.

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