i want art to feel EARNEST. this disgusting, near pornographic level of tongue in cheek meta humor is making me sick to my stomach. i don’t know how many more movies i can take about clever subversions and the movie winking at you to say “we know it’s a little silly, but…” where is the whimsy? why can’t we believe in the pretend you’ve created? why don’t you have enough faith in it? in my ability to believe?
My (scalding) hot take here is that this is a byproduct of artistic cowardice in the face of unrelenting criticism.
It doesn’t just plague mainstream media; this kind of tongue-in-cheek self-referential, self-deprecating “I know this isn’t that good wink wink” is all over indie media too.
So many creators are deathly afraid of being criticized for their creative choices, so terrified of an increasingly volatile online audience, that they feel compelled to sell themselves short on what their intentions are, just to plant that tiny nugget of plausible deniability: maybe if I create the illusion of not taking this all that seriously I’ll be more insulated from criticism.
If the thing they’re doing actually *is* good and becomes well-received, then they end up looking like accidental geniuses who had a moment of inspiration amid a sea of shitposts, and if the thing they’re doing is panned they get to laugh it off and go “well I wasn’t taking this that seriously to start with! You’re the one who’s making a big deal out of it!”
If no one thinks you’re really trying or that you don’t wholly and fully stand behind your creative decisions, then anyone who tells you that you could be doing your craft better looks like an idiot, and that’s the whole point.
A lack of earnestness is the perfect “get-out-of-criticism free card.”
(via oak23)
