Quick thoughts on entertainment and critical thought

IT’S JUST FANTASY!! Fantasy reflects your subconscious desires.

--Aamer Rahman, "Game of Thrones and Racist Fantasy"

Worth a read, I think. Rahman points to some of the obviously (to my mind) problematic aspects of race in Game of Thrones. I love Game of Thrones (have only watched the show, and am unlikely to read the books for quite some time) and am totally on board with this critique. Not surprisingly, there's a lot of defensive behavior in response. I think the conversations that come out of articles like this are really important, though, and I have to believe that they have some positive effect. There will be jerks, and the positive effect may not accumulate as quickly as I'd like, but I still think it's worthwhile.

I think that one of the most difficult parts of these sorts of conversations is how to articulate, and convince others, that books, shows, movies, etc. can do one thing well, while still doing another thing poorly. They can be entertaining but not actually well-told. They can subvert one type of assumption while supporting another. Or the same one, in a different scene. I think, for a lot of people, getting something right means it's either unfair or unnecessary to talk about the things that are less successful -- like if you're good on gender in some way, then you can't also be bad on gender in some other way. Or on race, or class, or...

Sadly, it's not a matter of either/or. GoT is actually a great example of this. As is Man of Steel, for that matter, though I'd put them on different parts of the quality spectrum (click here for my review). And I don't think that quality determines whether we should just accept what's presented, either. Game of Thrones may be more substantive and more complex than new-school Star Trek, but that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy them both, and it doesn't make either of them exempt from challenges to the images they use to tell their stories.

And, once challenged, how wrong is too wrong? What takes a media product have from being something I can enjoy, but maintain that it's important to think critically about, to something I just can't participate in? I love Whedon, but there are issues. I watch, but I also attempt to engage with the issues. I enjoyed Man of Steel, and I do think that Lois Lane was well done, in some ways. But not in all ways. I watched, and I liked it, but I felt like I needed to say that there was room for improvement. And then there's something like True Blood (SO MANY ISSUES), which I just had to let go of. As I write this, my brother is watching the season premiere, and I am hiding in another part of the house, to keep myself from getting sucked back into something that was fun (sometimes), but also so offensively racist and misogynistic that I just couldn't, anymore.

*sigh*

My geekery would probably be much easier for me if I didn't think so much, but I also think that would just enable me to be passively part of the problem. And I'd like to be a part of the solution. If only to make it easier for me to enjoy the geekery.