ok, people keep putting this post on my dash.
first: i'm going to push back against the idea that we "increasingly live in a world without primary sources, or even secondary sources as the average creative is increasingly uncultured, only tertiary". not true!
capitalism is in its dying throes and as such the infrastructure of knowledge is put to the test, but it is certainly not burning faster than humanity as a whole can build it. the average creative is "increasingly uncultured" only because art has become increasingly democratized, causing the pool of artists to grow and encompass people without a formal art education, but uncultured is not the same as incurious.
and that's the thing you're really criticizing, right? is the average artist increasingly incurious, or are you exposed to an increasingly saturated market of incurious english-speaking artists? because this is at best a western-centric view, and frankly i'd call it USA-centric.
second: you are identifying something 100% real and i especially agree with the addition in this reblog. these people think we expect them to do 200 hours of research to write their favorite genre. no we don't! they can do anything they want. but if they don't do the research, their writing will be junk and we'll call it junk. fine by me, even. i love junk.
but they have a problem with that, because they fundamentally think they can write good or even politically impactful literature despite their anemic diet of western (really, US-made) art. they think the potential to make good art is innate to them. but unfortunately if you've only watched children's cartoons and listened to D&D podcasts it's quite hard to write fantasy, let alone a love story that can change the world.
so i'll say: not only is it fine to make slop and throw up in dumpsters for fun, because the products we create and consume are honestly not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, and that includes art. but if one wishes to make great art, that it may be appreciated or just for the love of the craft, the resources are out there! access to influential media, useful data and information-collecting tools is better than ever.
if research seems terrifying and overwhelming, consider that you don't have to do it, and simply accept that you will make junk. there is no shame in that. just don't expect accolades, especially if you try to occupy the same space and genre labels as skilled or discerning people.
but more importantly, consider that maybe research is easier than you believe. getting easier, even. the same neural network breakthroughs that gave us AI slop are also letting us scan, transcribe and translate primary sources that were previously a pain to use, for example.
all this in addition to sharing our resources together, of course. in the end this is the important part. art is communication. so is research!
