Poll: Literary/Film Criticism = the Art of BSing?

[Dys]

Ultimately, yes, a lot of it is simply talking shit.

I found that I got fantastic marks in English subjects in highschool when I fluffed out my opinion, offered some opinion based off of things beyond literal quotes (things that I deliberately perverted and consciously attempted to make up), yet when I offered a clear cut opinion with supported by solid evidence from a text the score was much lower.

It's the same principle with reviewing media, a lot of it is based on unprovable opinions and looking beyond what is presented, which, ultimately, is talking shit.

Why are so many people citing their experiences in high school? Fuck high school English class, it means nothing.

Because for the majority of us, with our lack of direct reviewing experience, high school English class is the most serious review of any media we've done. It's also clear to anybody who was even remotely good at it that it's exactly what a lot of reviewers are doing. They read or are otherwise exposed to the media, form ideas then look for evidence to support it, already having decided that this is an interesting and worthwhile opinion.

Just to be clear, before you counter with some higher education experience, university critique is even more of a joke. My experience with uni is even less flattering, there's a larger pool of people vying for credit, and you need to distinguish yourself from the pack. The easiest way to distinguish yourself is to use more extreme ideas and write in extra stuff into the text.

Don't get me wrong, it isn't always complete bullshit. There are actually directors/writers/whatevers that consciously include crazy subtle metaphors in their work, it's just that the majority do not. Especially not when we're talking about transformers or twilight.

 

[Svenparty]

It's just to ensure you can coherently form sentences when you are stacking shelves in Tesco.

That's just the perspective of somebody who often has to write Film Criticism essays.