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Ask Flatvurm - Movie Taste
Oct. 2nd, 2005 07:32 pm[Editor's Note: If you are wondering, as you probably should, why this is happening, basically it was suggested that I start an "Ask Flatvurm" feature in my blog. Dig it.]
Dear![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
flatvurm,
I followedkawaiiryuko's reminder that Mystery Men is another piece of comedic artistry, one that K might appreciate better than Zoolander. This was not the case, unfortunately. Why do I like movies that go extra-heavy on the corn? Why do so few people seem to recognize the talent involved in such movies?
Yours,
the 'Fit
Dear the 'Fit,
I'm going to take a few liberties and assume that you're not actually asking what you're asking. To ask why you like something is often pointless...like asking why you like coffee, hiking, or bizarrely shallow European techno music. You just like it. Similarly, asking why people seem ignorant of the talent involved in these movies will yield nothing fruitful...like asking why people ignore the suffering of their fellow man or fail to appreciate fart humor. They just do. So what are you really after? It's clear that this topic of movie enjoyment is important to you, but why? I believe the answer lies in the combination of two factors.
The first factor is how you feel about holding what you perceive to be an unpopular opinion. I use the word "unpopular" here in a spectacularly loose sense; there may, in fact, be quite a number of people who enjoy movies the way that you do. What I more intend to convey with the word "unpopular" is the connotation that said opinion is received with scorn or derision. This effect is heightened if the reception comes from people who's opinions you value. You are, subtly, cast in an inferior light, if even in your own mind. In addition, this reception may trigger a feeling of difference...of being a freak, an outsider, an "other." Serious stuff!
And yet, how could it be so serious? It's only the movies. This brings me to the second factor, the (normally) innocuous nature of the topic at hand: taste in movies. It would be too easy to discount out of hand the feelings arising from the friction caused by a difference in taste in movies. I think it's accepted by most that there will always be differences in taste in movies, as there will always be differences in taste in most things. I believe the perceived insignificance is mostly a result of how commonplace movies are. We are constantly surrounded by movies...bombarded with them. As an omnipresent facet of our cultural existence, we are constantly confronted with them, which makes us constantly confronted with our opinions of them, which makes us constantly confronted with our differences of opinion of them. In most situations, this confrontation is constant but diffused, spread out over not only a lifetime, but among many different people at infrequent intervals. It becomes background noise. But the signficance of these differences can come noticeably forward if (a) the confrontations are, for whatever reason, given greater import by one (or both) of the parties involved, or (b) the confrontations are noticeably less diffused, as can happen when one spends a disproportionate amount of time with someone with differing tastes. What could, under different circumstances, be dismissed as a normal and insignificant difference of opinion might suddenly become a question of self and other, of acceptability and individuality, of respect and tolerance.
In summary, I think that your preoccupation with your taste in movies stems from your discomfort with being different. You can: (a) try to mold your tastes to suit the tastes of those around you, (b) pretend to mold your tastes to suit the tastes of those around you, or (c) recognize (and even value) the differences in taste that separate us from one another. It might also help to put differences in movie taste in its proper place as far as significance to you as a person is concerned. If at all possible, try to relax into the thought that your taste in movies will do very little to change how you are viewed by those who care about you, to say nothing about how little it changes who you actually are. Unless, of course, you like Blade.
Yours,
Flatvurm
Flatvurm is a verbose blogger who likes sharing his opinions on people's personal situations for no apparent reason. He has no qualifications for doing so. Got a question for Flatvurm? Leave a comment in his blog, or send e-mail to flatvurm@livejournal.com.
Dear
flatvurm,I followed
kawaiiryuko's reminder that Mystery Men is another piece of comedic artistry, one that K might appreciate better than Zoolander. This was not the case, unfortunately. Why do I like movies that go extra-heavy on the corn? Why do so few people seem to recognize the talent involved in such movies?Yours,
the 'Fit
Dear the 'Fit,
I'm going to take a few liberties and assume that you're not actually asking what you're asking. To ask why you like something is often pointless...like asking why you like coffee, hiking, or bizarrely shallow European techno music. You just like it. Similarly, asking why people seem ignorant of the talent involved in these movies will yield nothing fruitful...like asking why people ignore the suffering of their fellow man or fail to appreciate fart humor. They just do. So what are you really after? It's clear that this topic of movie enjoyment is important to you, but why? I believe the answer lies in the combination of two factors.
The first factor is how you feel about holding what you perceive to be an unpopular opinion. I use the word "unpopular" here in a spectacularly loose sense; there may, in fact, be quite a number of people who enjoy movies the way that you do. What I more intend to convey with the word "unpopular" is the connotation that said opinion is received with scorn or derision. This effect is heightened if the reception comes from people who's opinions you value. You are, subtly, cast in an inferior light, if even in your own mind. In addition, this reception may trigger a feeling of difference...of being a freak, an outsider, an "other." Serious stuff!
And yet, how could it be so serious? It's only the movies. This brings me to the second factor, the (normally) innocuous nature of the topic at hand: taste in movies. It would be too easy to discount out of hand the feelings arising from the friction caused by a difference in taste in movies. I think it's accepted by most that there will always be differences in taste in movies, as there will always be differences in taste in most things. I believe the perceived insignificance is mostly a result of how commonplace movies are. We are constantly surrounded by movies...bombarded with them. As an omnipresent facet of our cultural existence, we are constantly confronted with them, which makes us constantly confronted with our opinions of them, which makes us constantly confronted with our differences of opinion of them. In most situations, this confrontation is constant but diffused, spread out over not only a lifetime, but among many different people at infrequent intervals. It becomes background noise. But the signficance of these differences can come noticeably forward if (a) the confrontations are, for whatever reason, given greater import by one (or both) of the parties involved, or (b) the confrontations are noticeably less diffused, as can happen when one spends a disproportionate amount of time with someone with differing tastes. What could, under different circumstances, be dismissed as a normal and insignificant difference of opinion might suddenly become a question of self and other, of acceptability and individuality, of respect and tolerance.
In summary, I think that your preoccupation with your taste in movies stems from your discomfort with being different. You can: (a) try to mold your tastes to suit the tastes of those around you, (b) pretend to mold your tastes to suit the tastes of those around you, or (c) recognize (and even value) the differences in taste that separate us from one another. It might also help to put differences in movie taste in its proper place as far as significance to you as a person is concerned. If at all possible, try to relax into the thought that your taste in movies will do very little to change how you are viewed by those who care about you, to say nothing about how little it changes who you actually are. Unless, of course, you like Blade.
Yours,
Flatvurm
Flatvurm is a verbose blogger who likes sharing his opinions on people's personal situations for no apparent reason. He has no qualifications for doing so. Got a question for Flatvurm? Leave a comment in his blog, or send e-mail to flatvurm@livejournal.com.