Do you have any advice on finding a balance between enjoying a piece of media and recognizing its flaws?
This ask applies to a lot of things, but it’s mostly about Malevolent. I found your blog while I was still in my honeymoon phase of obsessing over a new favorite story, and your posts made me realize that, while I still love Malevolent very much, there's a lot of things I wish were different. This wouldn't have caused me to spiral into a mini crisis, except for the fact that I'm surrounded by a lot of people who think Harlan Guthrie can do no wrong, so it kind of feels like betrayal to think otherwise (hence why this is anonymous—I don't want anyone to get offensive or think less of me for this ask.) Analyzing media is fun for me, and is especially important as a creative, and I KNOW there's no reason for me to feel bad about it… but I still do.
So… do you have any thoughts? (Sorry for the mini essay, lol)
Man you have no idea how excited I was to see this in my inbox. I love talking literary theory, so let's go:
First, I think it's always important to focus on the fact that it IS something you love. In that way you're always centering your individual relationship with the story. I mentioned in another post that art is a conversation, and not a lecture, and I truly do believe that's the key to this all. Remember that you are allowed to have any kind of conversation you want, so long as it respects yourself and the text. Y'know that adage "you don't have to like your family, but you do have to love them"? Like, that obviously has some nuances and cases where it's a pretty harmful idea. But in a lot of other cases, it's the key to finding common ground and building healthy relationships. You don't have to (and really shouldn't) like every part of a text, but you can still love it overall because of its potential or other good parts.
Second, I absolutely see where you're coming from about being nervous how other people will react. Tbh there's been a bit of an online cultural shift where people believe that liking something=supporting every aspect of it/wholly agreeing with everything it says. Which is... not. healthy..... But you're right, it is hard to navigate when a lot of people don't recognize that mentality. It leads to a lot of confusion where some people fundamentally don't understand how to think about a text
For me at least, this is personally where I start to combine the two conflicts: I love a story but know it's flawed, and I want to enjoy a story but know people will be frustrated if I critique it at the same time. When I love something, I want the best for it. For example when I love a person, I'm actually more willing to acknowledge their nuances—flaws included— than if I didn't really like them, because I know that those flaws are stopping them from having their best life. In the same way I am much more concerned with discussing the flaws of a story that I love than a story I don't really care about, because I care about how those flaws are harming the best version of the story.
So when discussing the flaws of a story, I always remember the love I have for it. It helps keep me from disrespecting the story and talking about issues that aren't actually in the text, and it keeps me from disrespecting myself and the care I put into that story. And if anyone ever confronts/challenges me by saying that I "can't actually support a story if I'm attacking it" or that "if I don't like it I should just leave", then I can bring up that love I have. I don't want to abandon a story that means so much to me just because it frustrates me over certain topics. Both me and the text deserve better than that passive transactional mindset— this is our conversation, and we both have a right to hold our half of it. You have to remember that fact, and use it to defend your right to respond to a text in a healthy, respectful way
This is all just a general overview of my approach, I've been really thinking about this topic for a couple years now. But hopefully it can give you an idea of where to start!! It's a tricky thing to navigate because of how personal it can feel and the difference in how people have been trained to view art/artists. And if you ever want to talk about it more, I'm always up for it! Art is personal and communal, so it can really help to talk it through with a group
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