Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT 2907-2911 (2nd - 6th March 2015)
ReindeerFlotilla:
--- Quote from: aphanisis81 on 05 Mar 2015, 18:47 ---Reindeer, I think I understand the distinction that you're making, but I can't for the life of me figure out why it's a distinction that is so important to make.
...stuff...
--- End quote ---
There's a rather fundamental difference between, "I wouldn't want to be friends with Iago," and "Iago is a shitty human being."
Maybe Iago is a shitty human. I doubt most people here care. But, imagine for a moment you do. You like Iago, and think "shitty human" is a bit much.
Now imagine there's an open ended discussion of Iago at your favorite hang out, and at least once an hour someone shows up to loudly discuss how shitty a human being Iago is.
Now imagine that every week, the people who were loudly proclaiming Iago's shitty human-being-ness return to say pretty much the same thing.
Now, imagine that after three weeks of this, the Iago hate club dials it back to about three times a day. You think, you can hack it, but the very next day an hourly dissertation on the general shittiness of Othello starts up. You don't even care for Othello, but you don't care if anyone hate him, either. But it keeps happening. In droves. The same people. Over and over, they tell you how much they don't like Iago or Othello, but hardly ever say anything about the story or how the traits they don't like fit into the play. It's just very important for them to tell you that Iago or Othello is a shitty person.
Almost none of this discussion is about how these assessments of the characters impact the story. "I wouldn't want Iago/Othello?etc as friend" is an end to itself. The whole reason for the soliloquy.
If someone praises and aspect of Iago's style and how it set up a deeper issue, it will get an "Iago sucks" in response. When you say, hey.. Maybe that's a bit much, you get "Literary criticism!" When you say, "but none of these people is actually discussing the story, but "I hate Iago," you get "LITERARY CRITICISM!!!!1111111ONE"
NOT ONLY that, but you can't unhear/ignore the hourly interjection because someone always engages the complainer, up to and including quoting everything the person said, verbatim, before responding... often quoting all of the thing other people said in response.
It's kinda like that.
Kugai:
And now they'll never get her to leave the Apartment again
aphanisis81:
--- Quote from: ReindeerFlotilla on 05 Mar 2015, 19:30 ---
--- Quote from: aphanisis81 on 05 Mar 2015, 18:47 ---Reindeer, I think I understand the distinction that you're making, but I can't for the life of me figure out why it's a distinction that is so important to make.
...stuff...
--- End quote ---
There's a rather fundamental difference between, "I wouldn't want to be friends with Iago," and "Iago is a shitty human being."
Maybe Iago is a shitty human. I doubt most people here care. But, imagine for a moment you do. You like Iago, and think "shitty human" is a bit much.
Now imagine there's an open ended discussion of Iago at your favorite hang out, and at least once an hour someone shows up to loudly discuss how shitty a human being Iago is.
Now imagine that every week, the people who were loudly proclaiming Iago's shitty human-being-ness return to say pretty much the same thing.
Now, imagine that after three weeks of this, the Iago hate club dials it back to about three times a day. You think, you can hack it, but the very next day an hourly dissertation on the general shittiness of Othello starts up. You don't even care for Othello, but you don't care if anyone hate him, either. But it keeps happening. In droves. The same people. Over and over, they tell you how much they don't like Iago or Othello, but hardly ever say anything about the story or how the traits they don't like fit into the play. It's just very important for them to tell you that Iago or Othello is a shitty person.
Almost none of this discussion is about how these assessments of the characters impact the story. "I wouldn't want Iago/Othello?etc as friend" is an end to itself. The whole reason for the soliloquy.
If someone praises and aspect of Iago's style and how it set up a deeper issue, it will get an "Iago sucks" in response. When you say, hey.. Maybe that's a bit much, you get "Literary criticism!" When you say, "but none of these people is actually discussing the story, but "I hate Iago," you get "LITERARY CRITICISM!!!!1111111ONE"
NOT ONLY that, but you can't unhear/ignore the hourly interjection because someone always engages the complainer, up to and including quoting everything the person said, verbatim, before responding... often quoting all of the thing other people said in response.
It's kinda like that.
--- End quote ---
We must be reading different forums, because the criticism I see of key characters, while repetitive - inevitability of the medium, I suppose - is consistently either backed by references to the comic or made in the service of arguing a point about the comic. I don't know who these people are who just show up in droves to type "Dora sucks" and then sign off, but they're not showing up on my end very often.
What's with the exaggerated stylization of literary criticism? I'm unclear as to whether that's aimed at me or various other interlocutors.
Mr. Black Licorice:
My first response upon seeing today's comic: Fart Joke - SCORE!
My second response upon seeing today's comic: Is this realistic female interaction? My wife says no... "Women do not discuss farts, unless its in reference the men in their lives."
I wrote all of this before looking at your reactions. LETS SEE HOW THEY COMPARE!
ReindeerFlotilla:
--- Quote from: aphanisis81 on 05 Mar 2015, 19:56 ---We must be reading different forums...
--- End quote ---
And on that note, I'll be ending this discussion with you. Nothing personal, but we are reading the same forums, so either you weren't here during...Pretty much everything that happened in the last 2 months, or you don't see the things that happened as a problem.
Either way, it seems to represent an irreconcilable difference.
I will say this: "I don't like this about character X and I think it is boring," isn't literary criticism. It's an opinion. When I can trace the same people stating the same opinion repeatedly, with only a very few discussing any effect on the storytelling, I'd say--hyperbole or not--my characterization stands up. Obviously you don't believe that, so we'll just have to agree to disagree.
As for whether my "stylization" was aimed, in particular aimed at you, consider this: Why should you care? Why is it far more important who I may or may not have been pointing at than what I was trying to communicate? Why is it that it is okay to say things about fictional characters and it's not the speaker's problem if someone is offended, but the possibility that something might be offensive to you with regard to hypothetical people must be investigated?
As I said, I'm done here. So I don't need an answer. Those questions are purely for your consideration.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version