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WHAT KIND OF REVIEWS YOU WISH, MASSA?Aug 29 '02 (Updated Sep 03 '02) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line "BLOCK ME, you egomaniac authoritarian hicks!" Said the man signaling the waiter for another slice of cheese cake. "This is my style and you don't have to live with it!"
Since the opinions at Epinions regarding what is and what it isn’t a review are divided, were always divided and most likely will be always divided, one has to accept the facts of life: There is NO general agreement on the subject, none that is clear enough regarding what is and what is not good grammar, what is the limit of a given subject and which is the specific technique one must use to review a film or a book. The words used to describe what is expected from us are simplistic labels and as such they are wide open to a large number of interpretations, and THAT, unless one is a moronic authoritarian, is a difficult thing to enforce. The so-called “general consensus” is a rather foggy thing and it is used at times as a weapon, as an excuse, as a way to impose a sense of order that it’s also rather relative. I place a piece of writing in this rather open section and a reader regards it as “out of topic” and in the same sentence affirms that he doesn’t understand what I am talking about and THAT is why it’s out of topic! The rest of the readers don’t have a problem understanding it, but he… THAT is the brainpower and the intellectual capabilities of a fellow who has been made a LEAD!!! One tends to doubt of such qualifications.. Really! But that is nothing. I place a piece on a film and some other reader --also a LEAD-- writes to me saying that the policies of Epinions are clear –to her, I guess—and that “we” want reviews and NOT opinions! Another one reads my writing, affirms that I am an excellent writer but… My piece on a film or perhaps was a book, doesn’t belong with the reviews because I deviate from the subject. I committed the horrible and unforgivable sin of writing about some implications I see operating in the film or book and that was all that fine lady needed to judge me. And she is also a LEAD!!! But the following pearl of wisdom and veritable piece of old Americana --not as rare these days as we would like it to be-- was sent to me through the email address of a relative who works in the law offices where I use this system and where the attorney in charge will be taking care of us because of the rather peculiar text of her messages in response to some rather friendly comments made in one or two of her pieces… It comes from a source I cannot reveal, in compliance with this fine site usage policy and this is only a mild little sample, mind you: Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 23:18:48 +0000 My name is NOT LADY...........go get a life. Also, we need fewer spicks in this country, so go back where you came from. I certainly agree with the first of her statements, specially because when a person confuses a polite form of address for an actual name there must be something wrong, but I fail to see the purpose of the second statement… But I can guess the fear and the demographic pressure such character must be feeling these days. And this is only a small sample of the sort of mentality of those who are so punctilious about the placement of reviews, an animosity that usually hides the fact that some of my ideas are a bit too ticklish for their xenophobic little egos. Now, back to the subject or those who demand a certain sort of non-opinionated and not connected reviews… The fact that the author of a book or the director of a film is working PRECISELY to make us see implications and relationships between such works and the rest of reality, NEVER enters their mind. The idea that a piece of writing may point at those references, implications and allusions, NEVER enters their minds. Look at what reviewers are doing in all their writings for the media ALL OVER THE WORLD! TAKE A GOOD LOOK AT WHAT THEY ALL WRITE WHEN THEY WRITE ABOUT A FILM OR A BOOK, PLEASE! Some of them even publish books with their reviews, and to the last of them write about precisely what these scarcely few geniuses at Epinions hierarchy refuse to accept! This is probably THE ONLY PLACE IN THE WHOLE PLANET where the implications and possible connections between a film or a book are rejected by some folks who, for some obscure reason I prefer to call inefficiency and lack of professional seriousness, have been given power by Epinions. But the same geniuses say nothing when some reviewers affirm that a certain film is bad because it doesn’t render a certain novel as it was written, blow by blow!! Naturally those are real reviews as the cookie-cutter imagination of these folks prefer, so the philosophical absurdity goes on and on and on… The obvious fact that a novel and a film are different forms, that a novel is a fine artistic tool to describe inner processes, things that happen in the mind, and that cinema is eminently a visual and sound art form, and that fact makes the description and expression of so much interior life a very difficult thing, and that the filmmakers must somehow change things to make them “legible” in their art mediums, NEVER cross the minds of those critics and supervisors, and such reasoning is alien to the ones who are successfully posting those opinions that pass for good reviews. How can we possibly speak, let alone write, without putting opinions out of our mouths or keyboards, is never explained… The horse they ride is very very tall. All they care about is that any posting MUST be as they wish them to be, but their explanations and demands are completely irrational and not ever used in all the postings but in some selected few. And it was precisely the one twit who wrote to me that Epinions wants reviews and not opinions the one who, in her own reviews, fills the page with her own opinions! What is really happening here is that some of the ideas and positions taken by some of the writers are not well received by some others, specially the ones who believe the hierarchy is something important, something special. What is really happening is that any irreverence towards such foolish state of affairs will be punished in the only way it can be done by these folks… By pretexts, by excuses, by flexing their bureaucratic muscles and suddenly turn into malevolent disciplinarians… Because what it happens is that certain ideas and declarations regarding some film or some book gives them an itch they can’t possibly scratch. Here they are, believing that their relatively small success and acceptance in Epinions is a great accomplishment… and some of these naïve folks even believe that this could end up developing into a real career opportunity, and suddenly they must do what everybody else does in a corporate environment, kick rear end and take numbers, show them you are a hard nose professional. This infantile, sophomoric show of complete macho immaturity is not uncommon. This is what separates the men from the boys in the cannibalistic world of competitive and arrogant corporate life. The hierarchy institutionalized by Epinions continue attracting the bottom of our social barrel, the immature and prepotent half-developed minds that finally, FINALLY, got a place where they, not their terrible teachers, can give grades, can wield power, can have control! Others, who because of their personal development, great intelligence and incredible culture, plus fine writing styles, have reached such hierarchy, NEVER use their power, NEVER advice anyone, NEVER write anything but encouraging, festive, humorous comments in our pieces. There is one who ALWAYS give writers his support and ALWAYS ends with a phrase that has become his welcoming smile…”Write on!” That is the way Gungian ends his notes, and he makes all of us without exception feel at home, feel that we are welcomed by a gentle soul and a friend. There is another who never fails to leave her comment to show that she cares and she reads and she is there if we need her. There are many of those folks who deserve to be where they are, indeed, and they NEVER seem to need the flexing of muscles or the offensive, shallow, patronizing ways of the rest of these folks. I NEVER got any observations from whom I believe –and I am not alone in this belief—the very top film reviewer this site ever had. Mangiotto could teach me not only cinema or philosophy but I could learn to write like a real writer from him… and he never left me but nice words, some insight I didn’t have, new views… And why should he bother to play the cop? He is way but way out of this league now, and deservingly so, but he is a humble one so don’t dare telling him what I am saying. Sloucho delighted us all with his irreverent humor and his incredible insight on film… But he has left, most likely fed up with this whole sophomoric and arrogant scene. I don’t know why, really, but I do miss him a whole lot! Tlimjoco still among us is a wise and deep thinking lady with a fine writing style we all could learn from, and lately, to my greatest pride, I have discovered in her a place for me, because she is calling me her friend! THAT is the greatest amount this pusillanimous site could pay to me. ..and NFP… Nick! He never, never fails to leave me a cordial note, but also… More times than not he has left me some observations and humor and critical words that have been so prudent and written in such wise and disarming ways that I had to rise to the expectations this fine gentleman has invoked and open up and learn and keep evolving, and I wish I could have a mentor or a teacher like him. These are some of the mature --even if not at all in years-- folks that I came here to meet and to exchange opinions with. They are the ones who encourage us and inspire us. There are many more, fine writers and amiable, humorous folks I am starting to know and trust because I can learn a lot from their incredible insight and different points of view… and yes, Jack…you twit: From their own unique, completely individual and terribly original opinions! I mean…, If ALawston writes about some French film, I read and take notes as if I am in a classroom, because the well-loved Limey can cook! A colleague of some sort, July2145 always shows up with a tiny bouquet and her writing style deserves much but much more attention in this twits-ridden site. She is obviously a finest of ladies and an extraordinary writer whose works have such visually evocative life that I, as an old photographer, can close my eyes and see exactly what she writes about… And that is no gift. Writers like that lady work hard for such style. …And old friend ed grover not unlike myself victimized by the cowardice of the anonymous NHs that slowly have become a badge of honor among us. Few times anyone here has deserved so much a position of some sort in this site, but he continues to be neglected and that is an outright insulting thing, because it belittles intelligence and maturity in favor of authoritarianism and servile compliance with stupid rules. If I am up until three am is for two reasons. One is that I may be waiting for some constellation to become better visible through my telescope when the breeze from the bay sweeps away the last tendrils of fog, and I am on the roof leaning on my cane and freezing my back side off and waiting. The other reason is that cripper may be up somewhere on the planet and I will be one of the first to enjoy his opinions before going to bed. And lately I discovered the incredible style and insight of artbyjude, the deep scholarship of lyagushka and the frightfully great sense of humor of irreverent and wise badkittyM jkkelley is one of the very few friends I had the honor of meeting and breaking bread with, missing petra --a very fine writer who has gifted me with some samples of her fine craft-- for a few hours because I had a swollen foot. And these are some few of the fine writers in this site I have had the pleasure of exchanging comments with, collaborating in some outrageous write-off projects. But this site has been invaded by the Ladies Home Journal mentality, the sort of appalling domesticity of those who live in fearful isolation from the mainstream of our national cultures (notice the plural) carrying the rather tarnished flag of the PTA version of what is grammar, syntax and expository writing and the mere insinuation that the body has some orifices and that some authors mention them in their works horrify the bejesus of their puny puritanical hearts, let alone if some political or social implications are found and related to in some of the art works we write about. Between that group and the pathetic results of the fetish that is called a college education, specially the English Dept. --the last refuge and line of defense of every single mediocre intellectual in the realm, where the most stiff and provincial methodologies are used to inflate their juvenile egos-- this site has become, as in the Tarot, another falling tower. How can anyone feel comfortable here among such pathetic shows of the uses and abuses of power on the hands of such intellectual luminaries? How can Epinions preserve and keep happy its best writers if some post-adolescent egomaniacal brute is going to let us all know that a review must not contain opinions or that we are not talking about a book and we are out of topic because we dare comparing the quest of Ahab in Moby Dick to the neurotic expressions prevalent among some of our public figures? No. I refuse to comply and write in accordance with such devious and unimaginative formulas. No, because we all appreciate the revolutionary efforts of many of our greatest filmmakers and writers, and we celebrate their daring and the way those fine folks keep evolving and changing the formulas and creating new ways of expression as they move ahead. No, because when we read reviews of books and of films elsewhere the writers keep doing such things themselves, evolving new ways of writing about books and films, creating new ways of approaching their subjects, showing us more and more ways, angles of visions and specially their implications in our own lives in our society. No. I will never comply, and I will never place one of my pieces about a film or a book in any other category but together with my mates’ own opinions. But of all the stupidities that successfully reign in this site, one of the most remarkable is the one assumption that each piece is a completely independent thing and that the reader must find every single relevant item of information in each and every piece! NOBODY, absolutely nobody has gotten a hernia from clicking the mouse once or twice and access two or more pieces regarding a film or a book. Some films or books have HUNDREDS of opinions posted… HUNDREDS. Is each of those opinions to have ALL that one may wish as mere information? Do I have to believe that people will be unhappy or frustrated in any way if they take a look around and see what several of us think about a film or a book? That is only a excuse, a pathetic little excuse to put down those who are writing about some of the things that films and books bring to mind, which are usually much better guides for the reader to have a sense of what can be expected from those works than the mere dry and unimaginative information, or the dry transcription of some salient moments in a film or a book. And all those censorious efforts from the part of the sophomores in charge are making the best writers at Epinions go away and leave the field to His and Her Highness the Great American Adolescent. A little more than a year ago I left this site and this country to spend a year teaching overseas. I returned to my intellectual and academic community and recently I started to write again in Epinions because now I got a lot of free time and I remember this site as an open forum of opinions that was truly remarkable and helped the readers with a lot of different points of view. I came back and I found a community that is slowly sinking in mediocrity and terrible writing and has been left on the hands of a rather pathetic crew of authoritarian and arrogant dictators who speak of grammar and “objective” reviews without "personal opinions" and are silly enough not to realize that the many categorizations and subdivisions now placed in this site are a tremendous burden for the readers who are not interested in looking for a real controversial opinion about a film or a book in the newly instituted ghetto of Members’ or Writers’ Corner or however is called. That “corner” has been the resource available to Epinions to get rid of the good writers in this site, and it has been sold as a gesture of good will when all it is in reality is a subtle form of censorship of ideas and opinions that may be a bit much for the hierarchy and the corporate mentality but that is common everywhere else where reviews are published. I have written a hundred times that I don’t write reviews because I am tired of the patronizing arrogance of some of the children of the era who keep giving me advice I don’t need or want, so pathetically in love with their self important ideas and rather inflated egos. I have pointed at the obvious fact that when some of my views are considered subversive or in any way strange by some of those twits, they resort to technicalities because they simply can’t deal with controversy and they can’t accept anything but what happens in their own limited universe of provincial values. I have been nice, ironic at times, rather patient and I have remained uninvolved and quiet about some of the reactions –not responses but mere reactions—of Joe Six-pack and the Great American Prince or Princess. I have tolerated that folks who are barely aware of the existence –elsewhere, not NEAR them-- of a whole world of ideas and marvelous intellectual adventures and artistic explorations, attack my postings because they don’t understand and that suppose to be my fault, when most other folks not only understand but they also open to debate it all with me and with their actions bring more and more interested readers into the place… and I can learn things I like --and some I dislike-- from all of them. I have even tolerated the outright pathological persistence of others who I have made uncomfortable with my irreverent and humorous references and notes. I have put up with the mean spirited and arrogant self-righteous dictators and the adolescent egomaniacs…. Until today. Now I am telling you… Grow up, if you don’t mind, and change a bit… Realize that this site is not the whole world and that if you have been victimized by dysfunctional “family values”, by the authoritarianism of institutions, teachers, lovers, partners, corporate drones or society at large, be aware that you are trying to do EXACTLY the same here. You are becoming EXACTLY like the things and the folks who have damaged you or, in other words, you are becoming your own enemies… and making enemies in this site and out of it. Deeper inside of you there is an obviously confused and angry ego and you well know it. Your authoritarianism and rigidity is only one of the many ways in which it becomes explicit, and you are in for a rather sad ride, especially because sooner or later you will realize you are alone --in your own mind you are always alone, we all are-- but in your case you are in the company of all the things that worry and frighten you and that you keep pushing away because under all that self-righteous posturing and all that disciplinarian attitude that the new hierarchy instituted by Epinions contains… you are afraid. I am asking from you only one single thing, one single favor and I hope you humor me. As you should know, I don’t care about the ratings here, and I am here so my friends, new and old, can read these pieces I delete after a short time and I place in other sites in other lands where the arrogance of empire doesn’t reach into the mind of the people to produce such fears... and I also get well paid. So what I am asking is not at all much from you. I AM ASKING YOU TO USE THE BLOCK OPTION AND FINISH WITH THIS STUPID THING! BLOCK ME, PLEASE! FORGET THAT I EXIST AND GO YOUR WAY AND I SHALL GO MY WAY. And about the rest of you… Cheers, mates! Aruzenchin  |
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