Have you ever read a book, watched a movie/series, finished a game, and thought
“That was really good, it just wasn’t for me”. This kind of sentiment happens a lot and I think it’s a healthy way to explore art, but why do some things click with us and others do not?
Why do I like these kinds of stories and not those?
First of all, before going into the main idea I would like to say that Art resonates with different people at different times.
After a heartbreak, some music resonates differently.
Some films might hit harder after the loss of a loved one and so on.
Other examples can be a bit more mundane. Your mood when you consume something plays a vital part in you getting the most out of it. You don’t sit down and dissect a great piece of art after a long day at work. If you just had a shit day and you feel mad as hell odds are you are not going to like the thing you are about to consume.
Have you ever sat in the theater with a full bladder waiting for a good moment to go pee?
You might as well go straight away, for it is nearly impossible to focus on the film with a full bladder.
You are also controlled more by your surroundings when you might think. If the majority of your friends like a film chances are you might view that movie a little more favorably.
On the other hand, if the HYPE gets out of control you might think the movie is overrated and view it less favorably, however, if that is the case then you are still affected by other people and your surroundings.
Humans are not automatons, and we don’t experience art in a vacuum.
With those points out of the way let’s explore what humans can do to enjoy art a bit more.
Labels
If there is one thing humans do well it’s putting things into categories and boxes. This is in part also why genre is a thing. We put things and people into different categories to make sense of the world.
Humans are storytelling animals there seems to be a part of the brain specifically for storytelling. Storytelling is key, and how people make sense of the world and each other. This explains why we consume things that are story-driven like movies, books, series, and even games have to have a good story these days. The way we explore stories is through art.
Not only do we consume a lot of stories, but we also tell stories. We tell stories about almost everything and everyone.
Ever had that coworker who loved to gossip and couldn’t keep their mouth shut? Well, the reason is on the deepest level a love of story and a telling on what is going on in the tripe (the workplace).
We tell stories and are told stories about ourselves as well. The stories we have been told about ourselves from us in our adolescence. That is why it’s so damaging for a teacher to say to a child “You will never amount to anything”. You set that child up for failure, for they believe the story about themselves.
I am a person who has always said “I am just not a math person, I simply do not understand it”. I think a lot of people feel that way. The point is, I could properly learn math the story about myself doesn’t have to be true, in fact, sometimes the story is false.
The stories we tell ourselves don’t have to be imposed on us at a young age, they can manifest through other means. Say you watch a bad crime movie where the acting is bad, the direction is all over the place and the story sucks. If you watch 2-3 bad crime movies in a row you might form the story:
“I am not a person who likes crime movies”
sure this can be true, but odds are you are just unlucky.
Humans are exceptional when it comes to labels. We all use them, especially in today’s hyper-political climate.
If you are on the political right then you are automatically against people on the left.
The wish to be free of labels is in itself also a label, so it looks like we are stuck here.
If you are a Christian you are in opposition to the other religions.
Again, sometimes we put labels on ourselves based on prior experiences and the stories we and others tell about us.
This brings me (finally) to how to enjoy art more.
I have made a lot of observations online and I have by no means any solid empirical data to support my claims here, but this is what I have noticed.
When I was part of the anime community I would often see people say something like: “I don’t usually like sports anime, but I like Haikyuu”. It was always Haikyuu too by the way, which is strange since that show is overrated to an upsert degree and not at all a very good representation of good sports anime, but I decrease.
It was always weird to me that people believed that sports anime was not for them. They tell themselves
“I am not a person who likes sports anime”,
Yet they like Haikyuu of all things, which is a show that is not special or subverts anything within the genre, in fact, it is so much like other sports anime.
When it comes to books and especially on fantasy booktube (the youtube corner dedicated to books) we see a similar sentiment regarding Robin Hobb and her trilogy Liveship Traders. Most people love Robin Hobb and for good reason, but I have seen a lot of people echo the same sentiment, that of “I don’t normally like nautical fantasy, but this is pretty good”. This too is very puzzling, even more so than the love for Haikyuu.
I can’t actually think of that many nautical fantasy books. In fact, I can’t think of that many nautical books in general. It seems to me unlikely that people have read so many nautical books, to the point where they know it’s not for them.
The only real reason I can come up with is that those people were forced to read Moby Dick in school and thus grew to hate stories on a boat. If this is indeed true then think about how little it requires to form a part of your identity based on one bad experience.
People form their identities based on the stories they tell themselves. That is why a professional athlete suffering a game-ending injury can make for an identity crisis because now that person has to invent a new identity for themselves.
That is also why so many are having a hard time giving something new a chance, for new things are scary.
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”
– HP Lovecraft
My point is merely that in those two cases, both thought they did not like something for weak reasons.
The power of saying “I am a person who likes/dislikes X” is very embedded in us.
I was always the kind of guy who said “I like Anime ” and thus I watched a lot of different genres. Every time I watched something I did not like I took it as that specific anime wasn’t for me instead of a whole genre.
This doesn’t mean you can’t have preferences, we all have preferences in some way or another. I am simply saying that you should not build your identity on something like “I don’t like nautical fantasy” when so little of it exists.
Carl Schmitt and politics
German philosopher Carl Schmitt talked about the concept of “the political”. He says the political is the conflict between friend and enemy.
The friend is the person who holds the same position as you, it being political views or values.
By having an ingroup you belong to a relationship is created against everyone who doesn’t hold that view.
Now, what does some Nazi philosopher have to do with what we are talking about?
Like what Schmitt talked about when we label ourselves as people who like x we might fall into the trap of identifying as someone who doesn’t like y. It is not always the case that the things you like and dislike are connected, but people have a tendency to view themselves and their values as the only thing that matters.
Forcing your values
I have a friend who did not like L.A. Confidential, the movie from 1997.
His reasoning was that the main character went to a prostitute. That action made a cliff between him and the character. He told me he could not relate to the character and thus he did not enjoy the film all that much.
This criticism rubbed me the wrong way. Surely relatability is irrelevant when it comes to the merits of a story. I like a lot of stories where I don’t relate to the characters at all.
I am not as heroic as Aragon, or as brave as Sam, but I still like Lord of the Rings. I am not like Batman at all yet I still like the Dark Knight. I am not as psychotic as Arthur Fleck yet I still like the Joker.
I could keep going with examples like this and I am sure you came up with some of your own.
The problem is that most people have that kind of requirement when it comes to consuming stories. Maybe not that specific, but we have certain barriers that are hard to cross.
I think that is why so many people dislike The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. Having to read pages and pages about Holden’s thoughts can be difficult if you don’t like him, which you won’t because he is very unlikeable.
A similar thing can be seen in the Prince of Nothing trilogy by Mark Lawrance, where the main character is a particularly nasty individual.
I don’t have to be a person, it can be a subject matter like “slavery” or a theme like oppression, or even an action like going to a prostitute.
If the values we possess are too different from what the story represents, then a disconnect happens.
The problem is ego plain and simple. When you say I did not like that because it was about this character that I hated, or I did not like this because it showcased all the things I hate about x. Instead, focus on the work or art as a whole and try not to force your own views, values, or morals on it.
If we go back to the example of L.A confidential. Watch the film and instead of seeing the scene with the prostitute as something you might find wrong, just watch the scene as something that the character you are watching would do.
If you read The Catcher in the Rye and hate it because Holden is an annoying little shit, then think of it more as someone different than you, with another perspective.
I also think it is beneficial to separate the art from the artist. Just because the artist is not a nice person doesn’t mean the art is bad. It also doesn’t mean people who enjoy that art are bad people. In the end, it is entirely up to the individual and sometimes the artist is redeemable.
The secret is about separating yourself from the art.
It can be difficult and sometimes downright impossible.
But if you succeed then you might start to enjoy stories a lot more.