CrashGordon94 wrote: ↑Sat Oct 03, 2020 2:31 am
I think I made a typo that screwed up what I was trying to say. Just edited to fix that now.
Meant to say it's possible to PUT something in that doesn't fit.
And something simply being there doesn't mean it fits, it just means it's there. Something can be present and unfitting.
I didn't really have any specific series or issue in mind, it was a general point.
Right, and basically my point is that whether something fits or not is subjective. You can't "prove" that something doesn't fit by pointing to something that contradicts it, because that contradicting thing might be what doesn't fit.
Characters generally agree that Vulcans don't lie. (This doesn't fit because we sometimes witness Vulcans lying.)
Vulcan characters sometimes tell lies. (This doesn't fit because characters generally agree that Vulcans don't lie)
You can say that either of these things don't fit by pointing to the other, or you can synthesize them and say that they both fit, but no matter which of these options you go with you are making a value judgement that exists outside of the text.
Deledrius wrote: ↑Sat Oct 03, 2020 10:51 pm
And the frustrating thing is, this isn't an accident. The owner(s) of the franchise set out to do this on purpose, and now they have a split fandom. They wanted a break, and so they created divisions in the content itself that were not reconcilable thematically, hoping to dump the existing fans and build an audience of new ones. But you can't just accomplish that, so now you have multiple groups of people liking different entire chunks, and the corporate interests dictating which fans are "real" and which are "haters".
What. That's ridiculous.
Who deliberately sets out to tank their brand like that? This is one of the most bizarre conspiracy theories I've heard in a while. I mean, I get that a lot of older fans were put off by the new stuff, and I doubt any CEO is losing sleep over the idea that the show they own might not have met some fans' expectations, but why would it even make sense to try and get rid of paying customers on purpose?
Maybe it's more likely that they just made a show you don't like? I mean, that's happened to me before, so maybe I'm used to it, but I've never thought that it was done on purpose specifically to make me stop watching it.
Deledrius wrote: ↑Sat Oct 03, 2020 10:51 pm
Freeverse wrote: ↑Sat Oct 03, 2020 12:20 amEssentially, what I'm getting at, is that everything included in the work is, in fact, in the work. Therefore it has a place.
When you get to that point, you've created something that is a collection of words and not a cohesive world. It's like saying "the work made you feel something and therefore I win" even if that feeling is disappointment. You've cast your net so wide it literally encompasses everything and has ceased to have any value whatsoever as a category.
That's a terribly uncharitable interpretation that fails to acknowledge the words immediately following it...
Which honestly is a great example of exactly what I'm talking about. Cohesion isn't a physical property of story-telling. It's brought into the work by the person reading it. Like how you disagree with the idea that there are no inherently fitting or unfitting details because a story is, quite literally, a collection of words. That's the starting point, and I moved on from there to further elucidate my position, but because of your perspective, you've taken only part of what I said and reacted to that without synthesizing it in with the rest of the text.
You brought your own meaning to my work, which is something we all do whenever we read a text. And based on that meaning, we have differing opinions about how well certain details work within the setting.
Freeverse wrote: ↑Sat Oct 03, 2020 12:20 am
You can say that something being there is a problem,
Here I'm adding the information that while the text's mere existence is neutral, different aspects of it can be valued by you, the reader.
Freeverse wrote: ↑Sat Oct 03, 2020 12:20 am
but you have to actually argue that,
And here I'm making the case that while you have every freedom to take issue with something, it doesn't follow that all people will have the same issue.
Freeverse wrote: ↑Sat Oct 03, 2020 12:20 am
it's not just a given.
Finally, I close by insisting that the value you ascribe to a particular detail is not an inherent property of the text.
Put it all together, and you can create a new meaning by considering the work through each subsequent lens that I apply.
And that's critical analysis, baybeee!