Harshly Defined

[SecondCircle]

I realize that you can't take a step in any direction without seeing some form of prejudice (not talking about race or sexual preference here) but lately it sorta seems like I'm seeing a lot of "judging the cover" so to speak.

I was reading a few reviews for the new "Evil Dead" movie, and contradictory to its overall reception, a lot of people sort of gave it snobby reviews. Basically, the whole "gore" thing. Too much gore, to much violence, blah. While I'm usually no fan of this generation's torture porn crap, I felt this movie was something different. Because past all the surface brutality, it had a lot of creeps and chills. Lot of mind bending scares in it that left you peeking over your covers at night.

None of this was highlighted of course because of the gore thing. I stray from gore, because when used incorrectly or too damn much, it serves no purpose but to gross out teenage girls and make insecure men cheer like apes. But this one actually did a lot of things right, (while staying true to the "over-the-topness" of its predecessors). But a lot of reviewers mainly judged it on the grounds of its gore.

I read a whole article on "tree rape" as though the entire movie hinged on this one scene. And it wasn't even "rape" in the literal sense. A demonic force crawled inside her from the nether regions. Cringe inducing, but no "Last House on the Left". But the entire review was on tree rape. Two minutes of the movie.

Just recently, I read a few stories here that suffered this. (No not loving wives.) It seems that people, and not just trolls, will pick one scene or one factor from a story and judge it entirely off of that. Is that okay? I mean, if one thing turned them off that badly, then that's completely their opinion on scoring it low.

I guess my question would be, how do you judge a story? I tend to take in the overall experience and rated it. Even if the story wasn't for me, I look at how well written it was, or what creative things the author did or tried to do.

Have our criticisms, our ability to gauge good from bad become too harsh at times? Do we judge things like a child shoving away a plate of broccoli?

 

[sr71plt]

I try to judge it on what I think it was trying to do. But it also has to actually be a story and be readable.

 

[Darkniciad]

There can be one thing that completely ruins anything for you. The Mandarin's reveal in Iron Man III did that for me. Barely remember the rest of the movie, because that brief scene so thoroughly offended me.

I could go on and on about the reasons why, but that would be spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen it.

Once something utterly pulls you out of the experience like that, it's game over. I can understand what they were trying to do, but I don't have to like it.

 

[jdnunyer]

There can be one thing that completely ruins anything for you. The Mandarin's reveal in Iron Man III did that for me. Barely remember the rest of the movie, because that brief scene so thoroughly offended me.

I could go on and on about the reasons why, but that would be spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen it.

Once something utterly pulls you out of the experience like that, it's game over. I can understand what they were trying to do, but I don't have to like it.

I think Dark's right. It's commendable to try to judge the whole work, but you can't help the fact that sometimes people have a visceral reaction to a particular scene. Some people are less prone to that than others, perhaps, but it's too human to condemn across the board.

Fwiw, I loved the new Evil Dead movie.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I have a checklist:

Is the title snappy.
Is the hook sharp and where it needs to be.
Spelling.
Punctuation.
Grammar.
Is it a story with conflict, crisis, resolution, and moral lesson.
Is it coherent and cohesive.
Is the writing vivid.
Does the writing arouse strong emotions.
Is it plausible and congruent.

 

[SecondCircle]

I suppose that it is fair that if one thing completely turns you off, you should be able to score a story how you see fit. Its understandable that if someone was reading and came across an element like incest of homosexuality or something that just wasn't in their taste, that this would probably spoil the whole story for them.

But I'm just hoping that we aren't becoming "that guy". Nick Swardson talked about these guys in his stand up one time. You just see a badass movie or something of the sort, one that most people and the box office agrees is awesome, and you're telling "that guy" about the movie. To which he says, "yeah, dude. Seen it. 'Sucks."

At which point you're saying, "well yeah, man, but you gotta admit it was pretty cool when..."

"Nah, man. Seen it. 'Sucks."

I'm just hoping that as we critique these stories here, we aren't being overly critical of actually great stories. Or in other words...

"Read it. 'Sucks."

 

[SecondCircle]

I have a checklist:

Is the title snappy.
Is the hook sharp and where it needs to be.
Spelling.
Punctuation.
Grammar.
Is it a story with conflict, crisis, resolution, and moral lesson.
Is it coherent and cohesive.
Is the writing vivid.
Does the writing arouse strong emotions.
Is it plausible and congruent.

This is a pretty good list to follow. I must say I try to follow something similar to this in my head.

Oh, if we could all be more like you JBJ....

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

This is a pretty good list to follow. I must say I try to follow something similar to this in my head.

Oh, if we could all be more like you JBJ....

Uh, don't wish that on anyone.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I suppose that it is fair that if one thing completely turns you off, you should be able to score a story how you see fit. Its understandable that if someone was reading and came across an element like incest of homosexuality or something that just wasn't in their taste, that this would probably spoil the whole story for them.

But I'm just hoping that we aren't becoming "that guy". Nick Swardson talked about these guys in his stand up one time. You just see a badass movie or something of the sort, one that most people and the box office agrees is awesome, and you're telling "that guy" about the movie. To which he says, "yeah, dude. Seen it. 'Sucks."

At which point you're saying, "well yeah, man, but you gotta admit it was pretty cool when..."

"Nah, man. Seen it. 'Sucks."

I'm just hoping that as we critique these stories here, we aren't being overly critical of actually great stories. Or in other words...

"Read it. 'Sucks."

You just described everyone.

 

[jdnunyer]

I suppose that it is fair that if one thing completely turns you off, you should be able to score a story how you see fit. Its understandable that if someone was reading and came across an element like incest of homosexuality or something that just wasn't in their taste, that this would probably spoil the whole story for them.

But I'm just hoping that we aren't becoming "that guy". Nick Swardson talked about these guys in his stand up one time. You just see a badass movie or something of the sort, one that most people and the box office agrees is awesome, and you're telling "that guy" about the movie. To which he says, "yeah, dude. Seen it. 'Sucks."

At which point you're saying, "well yeah, man, but you gotta admit it was pretty cool when..."

"Nah, man. Seen it. 'Sucks."

I'm just hoping that as we critique these stories here, we aren't being overly critical of actually great stories. Or in other words...

"Read it. 'Sucks."

Fair point. There's more than a few of "that guy" on this site, I'd say. But they only ruin it for the rest of us if we let them. In other words, I don't think "we" are becoming "that guy". And he's not that hard to tune out.

 

[SecondCircle]

Uh, don't wish that on anyone.

Sarcasm.