I'm with you here. If something has value to someone, it deserves to be considered. We don't ALL have to love it, but deciding what's "in" and what's "out" seems pointless to me. Film and book reviews have been grating on my nerves more and more lately. Probably sounds hypocritical since I supported the whole fic review thing...but the reviews I liked always tried to find something positive even in fics they didn't like, and made it clear when it was largely a question of taste.
I wish mainstream media reviews did that. Roger Ebert is usually pretty good about judging films on their own terms instead of only giving good reviews to the arty stuff, and he's been skewing positive more and more in his old age. But that isn't a bad thing - better to like something mediocre than to trash something potentially valuable to someone.
I guess I'm more interested in investigating WHY we find value in something and not something else, or why others are finding value where we are not, rather than just compiling a list of what we like versus what we hate.
Um, Penny, this is NOT in any way a criticism of your question! It occurred to me this comment might come across that way.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-02-11 11:40 pm (UTC)I'm with you here. If something has value to someone, it deserves to be considered. We don't ALL have to love it, but deciding what's "in" and what's "out" seems pointless to me. Film and book reviews have been grating on my nerves more and more lately. Probably sounds hypocritical since I supported the whole fic review thing...but the reviews I liked always tried to find something positive even in fics they didn't like, and made it clear when it was largely a question of taste.
I wish mainstream media reviews did that. Roger Ebert is usually pretty good about judging films on their own terms instead of only giving good reviews to the arty stuff, and he's been skewing positive more and more in his old age. But that isn't a bad thing - better to like something mediocre than to trash something potentially valuable to someone.
I guess I'm more interested in investigating WHY we find value in something and not something else, or why others are finding value where we are not, rather than just compiling a list of what we like versus what we hate.
Um, Penny, this is NOT in any way a criticism of your question! It occurred to me this comment might come across that way.