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FlickrOn Nerves and Hitting Them
Okay, so...rather than respond in comments (where many won't see it):
Thanks to everybody who responded so intelligently and diplomatically to my last post. I got some really good thoughts from the other side of the suspension of disbelief debate, which is definitely something I needed.
But the main thrust of this post is an aside to that. Some of you who commented seem to have felt attacked or denigrated, and I'm very, very sorry; I really wasn't you I was talking to.
My intention, lost in the vagaries of the Internet, was to offer up my viewpoint and to take a moment for what really irks me, which is not people who have trouble suspending disbelief, but people who just won't suspend disbelief. It is a pet peeve, and so the more innocent parties sometimes catch the backlash. I had hoped, and seem to have failed, to offer up the theoretical basis on which my own (perhaps fanatically) strong sense of disbelief is based, in the hopes that I can show why this stuff sometimes happens for the sake of story, and maybe you could enjoy your next story experience a little more for it. It was supposed to come as a helpful suggestion and a little heap of my usual Interweb-snark, but the latter overpowered the former.
I fully understand bad or clumsy writing jarring one's belief, and definitely get why something could just be horribly uncomfortable to watch; I can't watch most embarrassment-based comedy for just that reason. If those who fall into those camps feel attacked, that's my mistake, not yours.
I will probably go back and edit that post a little bit—it was written during a break at Real Grown-Up Job and so lacked in both erudition and diplomacy. But editing is not the same as apologizing, and comments often go unread (especially on Blogger); so I thought I should put an apology here and let it sit for a couple days before I post again. So, in closing: I don't think any of you are stupid, and I'm really, really sorry for causing upset.
Why don't we all watch a really bad movie in solidarity? I'll buy the popcorn?
Thanks to everybody who responded so intelligently and diplomatically to my last post. I got some really good thoughts from the other side of the suspension of disbelief debate, which is definitely something I needed.
But the main thrust of this post is an aside to that. Some of you who commented seem to have felt attacked or denigrated, and I'm very, very sorry; I really wasn't you I was talking to.
My intention, lost in the vagaries of the Internet, was to offer up my viewpoint and to take a moment for what really irks me, which is not people who have trouble suspending disbelief, but people who just won't suspend disbelief. It is a pet peeve, and so the more innocent parties sometimes catch the backlash. I had hoped, and seem to have failed, to offer up the theoretical basis on which my own (perhaps fanatically) strong sense of disbelief is based, in the hopes that I can show why this stuff sometimes happens for the sake of story, and maybe you could enjoy your next story experience a little more for it. It was supposed to come as a helpful suggestion and a little heap of my usual Interweb-snark, but the latter overpowered the former.
I fully understand bad or clumsy writing jarring one's belief, and definitely get why something could just be horribly uncomfortable to watch; I can't watch most embarrassment-based comedy for just that reason. If those who fall into those camps feel attacked, that's my mistake, not yours.
I will probably go back and edit that post a little bit—it was written during a break at Real Grown-Up Job and so lacked in both erudition and diplomacy. But editing is not the same as apologizing, and comments often go unread (especially on Blogger); so I thought I should put an apology here and let it sit for a couple days before I post again. So, in closing: I don't think any of you are stupid, and I'm really, really sorry for causing upset.
Why don't we all watch a really bad movie in solidarity? I'll buy the popcorn?
posted by Tyler at
12:08 PM
1 Comments:
For the record, I wasn't offended, just offering some thoughts. I am slightly offended that you didn't publish my comment, though ;)
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