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The Internet and critiques

In his retrospective on Seven, Matt Goldberg said: “We can fill in excuses, but the tightness of the script does leave these flaws a bit glaring, although none of them derail the movie because we’ve been trained to accept movie serial killer logic, and the film isn’t really about the particulars of his plan as much as what that plan means.” (“The Film of David Fincher: SE7EN,” collider.com, September 23, 2014). As a reader or a viewer, we are ready to accept a little improbability in a work, and if we’re captivated, we forget about it. For example, in the good years of the series 24, there were tons of inconsistencies that we could see after the fact, but while we watched, the pace had us totally hooked.

But the Internet spoils some of this magic. There are sites specialized in systematic nitpicking. Pre-Internet, such critiques existed but they had a limited field of action. But now, the playing field is wide, wide open. Here’s Matt Singer on this phenomenon: “There’s something else at work here beyond simple popularity, though. As detailed in a recent study reprinted at Smithsonian.com, while ‘joy moves faster than sadness or disgust,’ on social media, ‘nothing is speedier than rage.'”  (“Nitpicking the Nitpickers,” thedissolve.com, August 25, 2014). This situation creates a weird atmosphere, where creators fear popular judgement, and where a whole industry of destructive creation comes into play. To be clear, we’re not rejecting this type of critique, which is often accurate. We’re only complaining that they have become a pretty standard form of clickbait.

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