This is good and should be the intention. My issue stems more from the fact that we got 30+ year old who haven't expanded beyond this
I can see why that thread would seem terrible when your only interaction with it is times like this where people are openly talking about you elsewhere and being weird. I have definitely been guilty of it and it shouldn’t be something that happens as often as it does. Most of the time it’s just talking about food and me posting about bands to no one. It is pretty harmless lol. But I see why it wouldn’t seem that way.
Absolutely, but like with a lot of social media this slop gets pushed to the top and has become incredibly successful
Yeah I mean I don’t see why anyone would disagree with that. But it’s also the same as 30 year olds who only see superhero movies. It is just a boring person. Those aren’t going away any time soon haha.
Yeah I get that. I guess it seems like it has always been incredibly successful to me and this is just another avenue for people to rot their brains out about it but I’m sure there’s some actual evidence towards it having more of affect
The ironic thing is I thought we had a nice discussion last night save for the reactive posts. All this talk about name calling in other threads is about like two people using the words “losers” “dweebs” “dorks” and look we really don’t need to have a pissing contest between the two threads over that lol. Some people think it’s pretentious and condescending to overhate on Hunger Games because it’s digestible and not that deep and does what makes a book relatable to people who don’t read very much. Other people think critical literary analysis shouldn’t be taken personally and resorting to personal clapbacks is unnecessary. The two sides aren’t gonna agree, but we are all adults and better than getting into a cat fight over something so tame and not that serious. Those who prefer high art and those who are unashamed to like accessible art are just different schools of thought, that’s all, who cares if 2 guys on the internet think you’re a dweeb, just don’t engage (and same goes to those who KEEP posting in the NFL thread about this, just go on with your day)
If people are saying that a thread you’re part of was being annoying, the answer probably isn’t to double down on annoying behavior.
The problem with the "let people enjoy things" idea is that we live in a shared space. It is generally considered rude to eat food with a strong odor in an enclosed space like an airplane because your decision to eat that food is conflicting with my desire not to smell it. Art intersects in the same compromise, too. The normalization of adults reading YA novels over the last few years influences what books are published, just like the rise of superhero movies affects what movies are made and the rise of online gaming influences what games are made. Books have a much cheaper barrier to creation than a film or a video game but it is going to have much less reach if it is something self-published and put on Amazon. Also, something like the IMDb Top 250 or the Goodreads list or anything else like that does influence what people decide to consume.
I agree with a lot of what you said there @Morrissey but at the same time we live in a shared space that is on fire and getting worse on seemingly a daily basis. I understand I’m a hypocrite saying this and my daily life isn’t affected by this because I’m not a teacher but I do understand letting people turn their brains off and enjoy things given the current state of the world even if it doesn’t appeal to me at all.
we live in a capitalist society though man lol that’s what capitalism does to art, it finds the least common denominator to market to the most people and sometimes at the expense of quality or discernment. I’m not sure the book itself or the author who wanted to write a book young adults can get into is the boogeyman we should be focusing our energy on if we have a problem with those books drowning out more challenging and artfully composed ones. There is space to appreciate both and the publishing market prioritizing what sells better over what would be better for high level engagement is a separate dynamic here.
I do think some of the nfl thread posters were being weird in here and in that thread. I also think some of you guys were, intentional or not, speaking down to them. Both things probably shouldn’t happen. We are all middle aged posters on a pop punk fan site we’ve been posting on since we were teens. No one is better than anyone else here.
My issue was not about the hunger games itself just the general thought that there’s no value in reading books like that or other “trash”. For myself personally, I have such limited leisure time. I want to unwind and relax and do something fun. So yeah I’m going to reach for DCC or some fantasy book and not James Joyce or Great Expectations. Why would I do that? And I bet a significant amount of people feel the same. And to judge them for it for no picking up great literary works to challenge themselves when they are challenged all day in other ways just doesn’t sit well with me. and I shouldn’t have called anyone a dweeb in another thread. Should have done it here so my apologies on that.
I did think more about this after I posted it. I think the most fundamental way I can say it is that it's about expression more than plot. I'm sure there is some balance in terms of 'readability' but it's not primary. I wish this was an environment where the literary fiction author would want to talk about his work in these terms but alas
Like yall think I don’t have the same issue with the music industry as a musician? Of course I do lol but I would just sound like a bitter “dweeb” or whatever baby shit-soft insult we are taking way too personally if I spent my time talking shit on pop music that most of the website finds relatable when the actual issue is how music is monetized. It just is what it is, you know? No sense in finding a way to victimize yourself for having a higher standard, that’s the part that feels self centered and off putting to others.
This isn't true, though. A few years ago we did threads about films released every year and the top ten highest grossing films were not always full of lowest common denominator stuff. The embrace of YA by adults is a fairly recent phenomenon.
I agree with you but I think music is a bit of an apples and oranges thing here since you are a musician and not a music teacher. They aren’t authors. They’re (at least a few of them idk about all of them) are English teachers.
They have done analysis of Trump's speeches and their manner of speech is significantly less complex than politicians from previous generations. As a whole the country is getting less intelligent.