[blah-blah-basic-logic-rules-blah]
Jul. 1st, 2006 03:16 pmYou know, it just struck me that a lot of my irritation with various faulty arguments within fandom, like projection (where you assign your own responses to others, sometimes fictional character 'others' instead of fans) or over-generalization (where you take your response to one type/genre of story/art/thing and make it apply to all other vaguely related types) could be traced back to people's lack of understanding of their own likes & dislikes.
It's like, they accept they like such-and-such (there's usually a list in case of reccing emergency, right) without asking themselves why. This makes people jump to the wrong conclusions, makes false patterns emerge when they like/don't like the next thing, whether or not it's similar/different. We all draw conclusions about the quality of a given fic/show/artwork, but without knowing the nature of our bias-- specifically why we like or dislike stuff-- they're almost certain to be wrong. That's the bottom line.
This is all the more obvious when people talk about what's 'better' or which genre is superior or whether X show or genre or media (comics/TV/anime/etc) sucks or rocks, whatever. What's important is -not- finding some 'exception to the rule', which is what most people try to do in these cases to prove the person wrong-- like, 'look, here, -this- is cool, right?'. The point is to show the faulty assumption at the root of it, that it's incorrect to posit the question in that way to start with.
I mean, of course it's fine & normal to have (many) biased preferences; the point is not to explain or excuse them upon information you do not or cannot have. You don't need to do any research to say you think the HP books suck beyond just reading (most or even some of) one, for instance-- I firmly believe this. You would only need it if you a) want to argue specifics; b) want to have a plausible discussion with a fan; c) want to make any generalization regarding fantasy books or children's books based on this one experience & be taken seriously. And to compare HP to anything or generalize, you would need to read books that are nothing like it as well as books that are a lot like it; you would need to find out what you disliked and what you liked and try to see if that holds up in other stories. You would need to actually find out what people like and accept it as valid, and try to understand why it doesn't work for you and if it would in another context, and why.
Basically, it's simple logic that anime in general cannot be 'better' or 'worse' than anything (and what would that -be-, anyway); only a specific anime can be more well-made than another specific anime, only of a similar type/genre, and even this is highly debatable. Slash cannot be 'better' or 'worse' written than het, except in specifics. And what do specifics matter when you're generalizing? You need a general proof to make a general statement (specifically, you would need to show your theory holds up in various unrelated and specific contexts). Regardless, statements of preference (since better/worse is subjective preference 100%) cannot be argued; they can only be explained once one's bias is understood. With some introspection, that is.
...Of course, it also really helps to know a lot about the various different types of genres or fics or whatever you're going to be comparing/measuring the merits of. And to keep an open mind. But I guess that goes without saying.
It's like, they accept they like such-and-such (there's usually a list in case of reccing emergency, right) without asking themselves why. This makes people jump to the wrong conclusions, makes false patterns emerge when they like/don't like the next thing, whether or not it's similar/different. We all draw conclusions about the quality of a given fic/show/artwork, but without knowing the nature of our bias-- specifically why we like or dislike stuff-- they're almost certain to be wrong. That's the bottom line.
This is all the more obvious when people talk about what's 'better' or which genre is superior or whether X show or genre or media (comics/TV/anime/etc) sucks or rocks, whatever. What's important is -not- finding some 'exception to the rule', which is what most people try to do in these cases to prove the person wrong-- like, 'look, here, -this- is cool, right?'. The point is to show the faulty assumption at the root of it, that it's incorrect to posit the question in that way to start with.
I mean, of course it's fine & normal to have (many) biased preferences; the point is not to explain or excuse them upon information you do not or cannot have. You don't need to do any research to say you think the HP books suck beyond just reading (most or even some of) one, for instance-- I firmly believe this. You would only need it if you a) want to argue specifics; b) want to have a plausible discussion with a fan; c) want to make any generalization regarding fantasy books or children's books based on this one experience & be taken seriously. And to compare HP to anything or generalize, you would need to read books that are nothing like it as well as books that are a lot like it; you would need to find out what you disliked and what you liked and try to see if that holds up in other stories. You would need to actually find out what people like and accept it as valid, and try to understand why it doesn't work for you and if it would in another context, and why.
Basically, it's simple logic that anime in general cannot be 'better' or 'worse' than anything (and what would that -be-, anyway); only a specific anime can be more well-made than another specific anime, only of a similar type/genre, and even this is highly debatable. Slash cannot be 'better' or 'worse' written than het, except in specifics. And what do specifics matter when you're generalizing? You need a general proof to make a general statement (specifically, you would need to show your theory holds up in various unrelated and specific contexts). Regardless, statements of preference (since better/worse is subjective preference 100%) cannot be argued; they can only be explained once one's bias is understood. With some introspection, that is.
...Of course, it also really helps to know a lot about the various different types of genres or fics or whatever you're going to be comparing/measuring the merits of. And to keep an open mind. But I guess that goes without saying.
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