Originally Posted by
Maple Syrup Actual
I get that ,that's totally fair and I would not criticize that at all: I am willing to be subjected to basically whatever, if it makes my kid happy. At six this morning, I read "Little Blue Truck Leads the Way" seven times in a row and I don't think I'm violating any principles of PERSEC the tactlenet would want me to have by stating that is not my personal taste in literature and subjectively I felt that the plot was not sufficiently complex to warrant even a second reading. Furthermore, while at times I encounter stuff I need to read aloud in order to be certain I have followed the argument or description on account of its complexity, in this case I feel I could have grasped the crux of it while reading silently. But I did opt to read it aloud, first once, and then again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again. And I enjoyed it, even on the seventh run through.
In fact, once it becomes about your family, I can totally accept the idea not just of tolerating it, but looking forward to every new release, because it's not about the movie, it's about your family, and conveniently for me since that's what I'm focused on I now think that's the highest and noblest purpose in life.
I honestly don't really "get" baseball but over the next few years, I fully expect to spend hours and hours at baseball diamonds watching what will be - and in baseball I think this is easy to measure since the game lends itself to incredibly detailed measurements - some of the objectively least skilled athletes on the planet, playing some of the worst baseball anywhere, and I'll probably think it's great.
I am trying to be more open about a bunch of stuff these days so I'll say that I grew up with a dad who took the exact opposite approach and would evaluate absolutely everything on the basis of whether it was objectively likely to interest or benefit him and I can tell you that is a terrible method of parenting even when viewed purely through its own lens of objective self interest: if a kid wants to play catch, read a story, or introduce you to his stuffed bear and you always say "I'm not interested in wasting my time on things like this" I think it's only fair to warn you that there is a good chance the kid you say that to, will one day be the emotionally distant adult making choices about what your last years look like. So even the rational self-interested adult benefits from enjoying stuff with their kids that they probably wouldn't otherwise.
And to me at least that's such a powerful lens that it essentially negates the existence of the rational self-interested adult, and lets me genuinely enjoy things I otherwise wouldn't. I was genuinely happy when my wife came home with Little Blue Truck's Halloween; it's the equivalent of genuinely being happy with a new Marvel release that ten or fifteen years ago you'd have scoffed at. The family lens either is, or should be, extremely powerful and I totally accept that and (obviously at this point in the caffeine binge) advocate for it.
I'm really only vocally opposed to the existence of these movies, as movies, on their own merits.
But it is also fair to observe that I have really specific obessions about screenwriting and I am not the target market for, basically, anyone not doing either Scandi-noir, or the German series Dark, and I can accept that there are probably a ton of people who love the Marvel universe and who took a look at Dark or Deadwind (which I admit got increasingly silly in season 2) and thought "this is garbage."
One of the only things I collect is "studies of wine expert objectivity" and I'm pretty committed to the idea that taste is entirely subjective and if you enjoy something, the idea that it's "not good" is meaningless and I think this is really borne out by studying what happens when you apply strict controls to wine tasting. What criteria should anyone use for recreation other than "this is what I enjoy"?
So I hate the Marvel universe, but...I don't think it has any meaning that I hate it.
Oh, I am also a big fan of the Lego stuff and just discovered there's tons of it on Canadian Netflix and am watching it here and there with the little guy. I think when I saw the original Lego movie I sat there with my mouth open for about half of it because I couldn't believe how many boxes it was checking for me. Why that extreme form of third wall breakage works for me and the Joss Whedon style doesn't, I couldn't say. I accept the subjectivity of my taste profile and make no claims to its validity.
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