My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on: Criticism and Art
I know what some of you are thinking: Wouldn’t that be a better thing to talk about on that other blog you run? Isn’t this a series from there?
Well, while I do think that my followers on @natsubeatsrock could definitely benefit from reading this, I think that this is an issue that extends farther than the Fairy Tail fandom. So while I’m going to use Fairy Tail as an example, this can go for a lot of things.
By the way, if you want to hear more about this idea, go to this really long essay about anti-snark, which was a partial inspiration for this post.
Stop me if any of these statements sound familiar. (You can't because this is text, but bear with me.)
“If you think that it's so bad, I'd like to see you try to do a better job.”
“If you have negative things to say about Fairy Tail, you should keep them to yourself.”
“Mashima works hard to bring us new chapters every week. How dare you bring down his work?”
“If you don't like this series so much, why don't you just read something else?”
“Kill yourself.”
Yeah, that last one was kinda extreme. I should stay off Youtube...
Otherwise, I see comments like this all the time.
Usually, someone who tries to defend Mashima from the “haters” will say something along those lines and get more notes than this post will probably get. And every time someone does, I cringe. Usually more because of the people going “Preach!” in the notes for the post than anything in the actual post.
Eww…
Of course, that’s not to say these are good arguments. Hence the rest of this post.
I don't normally do this, but let me say why some people might think that I shouldn't be arguing these points. Everyone has a bias behind their arguments. However, with this argument, there may seem to be a conflict of interest that I feel is necessary to address.
I am an art creator. More specifically, I am a musical composer. If you don't know what that means, I write music. I do a lot of other musical stuff, but I enjoy writing music the most. In fact, you might find a few pieces that I've posted here if you look hard enough on my blogs.
From the perspective of a composer, I totally understand the appeal of this arguments. I don't want someone who doesn't know the functional difference between an A sharp and a B flat (or, at the very least, that they sound the same) to try and devalue the hard work I've put into my work. Especially considering that, whenever I put notes on a page, I put a piece of myself on the page.
It's even worse when people don't know the struggle. It's been said that it takes minutes to consume art but hours to create art. I've spent weeks, months even, working on single songs. It's a combination of things that are hard to explain without going into too much detail.
So, why can I still say these arguments still fail?
Because they’re not about content being criticized. They’re about the critic. The problem is that the person making these arguments are essentially saying that the person who is criticizing something is unqualified to do so.
Think about the first one. It's impossible to say anything bad about a series if you're unable to create something as good or better?
How is it possible to have taste for anything if you can't have problems with something without being able to make something like it but better? Simply by having taste for something, you are saying that “I think this is better than that.” You may never vocalize or understand that you are doing so, but that's what's happening nonetheless.
Also, why does this always only apply to people who are saying bad things about the series? Why is it that I only can't say anything bad about Fairy Tail unless I've made my own manga series? Shouldn't it also work the other way around?
No one goes around and says “Stop saying good things about a series unless you can make your own.” Heck, imagine if someone said, “Stop saying anything about anything you can't make.” Again, how would we be able to have any taste for anything if we can only say things about things we can make?
As for the third argument, it honestly doesn't matter if there was a lot of hard work put into something if it isn't good. There are many instances where something that wasn't well made becomes popular and stuff with more thought put into it.
And often, as any honest arts creator will tell you, you'll work hard on something and realize how bad it is. Then, you'll show it to someone who isn't an art creator and they'll love it. The fun is usually figuring out who's right.
Now here's where it gets interesting. As an art creator, I value criticism differently than you'd probably think. I appreciate compliments from anyone and constructive criticism is always good. However, the criticism of the unintelligent means little to me. And often, I ignore criticism that is meant to be critical.
For example, I play electric guitar. I won't listen to people who don't like how loud I play a certain heavy rock piece. That's the point. However, if I'm told to put down my volume down because I'm causing audio issues, I definitely will.
What is tricky is hearing what is meant to be constructive criticism that is not constructive at all. For example, one person I play with had the nerve to tell me that I was not creative enough with the intention of being helpful.
What?
I did appreciate one of my jazz instructors telling me that my own original solo skill needs to be developed. He explained that I sound like I'm searching for notes to play instead of playing a cohesive line. That hurt to hear, but I appreciate that more than “you’re not creative”, even if that was what the first person meant.
And, as an art creator, I don’t even have to listen to any kind of feedback. As shocking as it may sound, I don’t necessarily have to listen to people regardless of their opinions of my work. While the internet allows for more connections, it also allows people to distance themselves from people they don’t like.
Say I decide to take my music to the public. If I post music videos on Youtube, I can turn off comments. If I have a social media account, I can block people I don’t want to hear from. I can even swear off social media. If I sell my music online, I can ignore any and all reviews entirely.
Even if you want to argue that doesn’t stop criticism because people can send me their complaints through newspaper reviews, fan letters or in-person, I can still ignore criticism. I don’t have to read newspapers. I don’t have to share my address or have a PO Box. I don’t need to interact with anyone who only knows me through my music. With the advent of self-publishing and self-production, especially considering music, I don’t even need to have anyone help me with the creative process.
Now, what I’ve just described probably sounds depressing to some of you. Not being able to listen to any input on your work is probably disturbing. Sure, you get rid of the “haters”. But doesn’t your art suffer as a result?
That’s the point. I will admit that this is an extreme set of examples and that not listening to any criticism ever can cause an art creator never to grow. But, as an art creator, an important skill is being able to weigh out criticism. It is important to recognize when criticism is meant to encourage your style/work and when criticism is trying to discourage on your style/work.
Mind you, I say this as someone who took writing music seriously about 4 years ago. Hiro Mashima’s been making manga for longer than many of the fans in his core demographic have probably been alive. This guy has a Twitter account and gets messages from fans over all kinds of stuff on tweets about games (I know because I follow him). I’m pretty sure that by this point, anything bad that I have to say about Fairy Tail means very little him.
As a side note, some of you might be wondering why I’ve been using the term “art creator” instead of “artist”. Maybe this is just me, but the term “artist” implies visual arts of some form. I feel that the term “art creator” is more inclusive to other forms of arts. It includes people who make music, like me, others who film and edit videos and those who write stories or poems.
Now to that fourth comment. I feel like this defense is misguided. I don't think you should waste your time with something that you don't enjoy. There's plenty of great anime and manga out there. I'm taking my time reading three series, but I read each new chapter about three times each week and I often have to go back and remind myself of events from past chapters.
But let me ask you a question: Do you honestly think I would still be here if I didn't want to be?
Many people criticizing Fairy Tail are fans who have realized that this series is not as good as once thought. Heck, you can go through my posts in chronological order and see me be more cynical of Mashima. While some are here just to rag on the series, many of us criticize Fairy Tail because we want the series to be better than it is.
And honestly, at this point, is it even worth it to go? Fairy Tail is only a few months away from ending at this point. What would be the point of dropping the series now?
I think the worst thing about these arguments is that the people using them have a great opportunity to argue for the series but argue against the critics. If you genuinely think the series doesn't deserve this much flack, it's probably better that you prove why then stop all criticism of it.
In my last edition of this series, I mentioned that there is a similar problem with Sword Art Online and its fandom. Digibro, one of my favorite anime YouTubers (which probably says a lot about me), has gained a lot of fame by ragging on the series. In fact, I linked a few of his videos in that last post and he expressed similar qualms with the phrase “Why can’t you turn your brain off?” that I have with the first phrase. (read: I said almost the same thing)
Recently, he’s made the point that his popularity doesn’t come from being negative about the series, but by talking about the series. In fact, it would be better for him to say good things about SAO than to say bad things. The problem is that no big Youtuber has proven the “merits” of SAO.
The same is true about Fairy Tail. There are tons of people ripping Fairy Tail online. However, there is not a whole lot of people making a defense of the series. The biggest person on the Internet I know that might (Glass Reflection) has yet to finish the series and I don’t know if he still would.
Instead of less negative opinions about it, the Fairy Tail fandom needs more people to give good reasons to like the series and/or give a good defense for the problems people have for it. And as weird as it may sound, I actually want people to prove that Fairy Tail is really good. I want someone to justify following this series for years.
But I’ve seen plenty of arguments supporting different things about Fairy Tail and almost all of them range from just off to illogical to “Why is this an argument people use and believe?”. About the only things that don’t are for unpopular ships and some characters. But no one I’ve seen has made a great case for this series. A lot of the people that I think could are too busy telling people with negative opinions to shut up.
See the problem here?
In Conclusion:
If you think that we're wrong for not praising this series, then, instead of asking for less discussion about its flaws, create more discussion about its merits. Make good arguments that the series is better than me and other folks think.
