Books, manga, movies, songs, albums, clothes, cars, food, people.
What do they all have in common?
They're all stuff that can be praised, scrutinized, criticized and destroyed by mere words.
I've seen many reviews in the past 17 years of my life and have found them to be somewhat...cruel. It pains me to see how people react to a bad review, especially when much effort is taken to produce such objects.
It only takes a bad apple to spoil the whole barrel; it only takes one bad review to spoil the image of something, but even a thousand words cannot seem to convince people of its beauty nor perfection.
Perhaps it's a common nature for humans to vituperate, or even be captious. I can't say I've never done it. Usually, I bite my tongue before spitting the words; sometimes, I spit it out and then regret over the pain I'd cause.
Take books and manga for instance. People usually read the reviews before buying the book; they'll rush for the bookstore if it's highly recommended, ignore the book and deem it the author's worst creation ever if it isn't.
It all boils down to what the critics says, huh? If they say it's good, means it's good?
I beg to differ.
People never seem to comprehend that it's their own opinion that matters most. They won't even give it a chance if the critics says that it's bad. Don't they ever think that maybe, just maybe the object under criticism will be something they (the consumer) will come to like or even like from the very beginning?
Critics are people who, well...criticize. And I quote from the animated movie, Ratatouille. It's the scene where Anton Ego was wondering what sort of review he should write for Gusteau's.
In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new.It does change the view of a critic, huh? Or shall I say, criticizing a critic. That's only when I post nothing else but the sentence in red.
It isn't fair I just quote that sentence to convince others that critics are mean people; but there are some who don't admit that something is good when it comes smacking them right in the face.
I've seen a dozen of reviews telling me that a certain product or book/ manga title isn't good, but found myself liking it instead of hating it when I try it out.
Just because someone says it's bad, doesn't mean you have to hate it without even trying it out yourself.
Also, my taste for things might not be the same for the person writing the review, kinda like the the tomato (tuh-may-toe) and the tomato (tuh-mah-toe) argument.
I'll stress again that reviews are just what the person thinks when they observed the object, not what everyone in the whole wide world thinks of the object in question. A critic might represent some of us, but not all of us.
So the next time you are interested in something, try it out before dismissing it. The reviewer/ critic might not enjoy it, but that doesn't mean you won't.
