> Umberto> Good argument, but invalid. The operative question is: what if
> someone had forced you to eat it as a kid? Would you have done so, and
> if so, would you ever willingly have eaten it again?
I don't know, Mike. I think that depends on the personality. I was
forced to eat everything on my plate when I was a kid, and, twenty
years later, I credit that inconsideration with my almost limitless
appreciation for food. I like _food_. There is some food that I
enjoy more than others (I am not overly fond of beetroot, for
example, or marrow), but I don't actively dislike any of it.
On the other hand, my brother-in-law was forced to eat brocolli
as a schoolboy, and even the smell of it sickens him now. My
youngest daughter, if she decides that she doesn't like something
based on the smell or the colour, is guaranteed to detest it if she
thinks it is something you might force her to eat. For her, like and
dislike are almost strictly psychological.
To relate this to SF films, some people would not have discriminating
taste if subjected to the very best in motion pictures every day of
their lives. It isn't a faculty that exists within their psyche.
Others can be raised on garbage, with nothing else for comparison,
and immediately recognise quality when they first see it.
My oldest daughter, when she was nine, went with me to the cinema to
see Jurrasic Park. She sat almost silently through the entire film,
and it wasn't until we exited the cinema that she made any comment at
all. She looked up at me and said: "You know, Daddy, I didn't like
that movie much."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because I don't like movies that are all pictures and no ideas. I
like movies that make you _think_."
I have never been quite so proud a parent.
My wife can watch an episode of Baywatch, and then watch BladeRunner,
and enjoy them both equally. She enjoyed them, and they have no
merit outside of that. I am not mocking or criticising: I think
that her opinion, and those who share her opinion, is as valid as
mine. I _know_ that Baywatch is garbage (I believe that I know?),
but to express that would just cause resentment. Our marriage is not
a critical forum.
While this _is_ a critical forum, we all have different psychologies
and philosophies. This is what makes the difference in whether we
like or dislike film X, or film Y; quality is not only subjective,
but to a huge section of the (largely American) population, quality
doesn't _count_.
Is that a good thing, or a bad thing? I'll leave that for someone
else to decide.
Cheers,
Chas
|