Schmooples' Den! The DA News Discussion Thread

Not to break this one off -then again why not, we're all just GOING THE F*CK NUTS HERE anyways after all- but what is an "amazing" story then?

Usually what we mean by that is, intellectually challenging and confronting us with familiar concepts in an unfamiliar way. And then, we feel things.

I'm just genuinely wondering right now how we make that seperation - between an amazing story that we like, and an... unamazing story that we like. Is it basically embarassment? Like how we wished we hadn't enjoyed that episode of Love Island as much as the latest Christopher Nolan movie?

I wish more people were embarrassed about liking Nolan.

An amazing story is when it's something I like, an unamazing story is when it's something I don't like. /s

The real answer is that there is no easy answer. John Gardner once described fiction as a "vivid and continuous dream." Bad or unsatisfying fiction pulls us out of the narrative, interrupts 'the dream' and forces us to think about outside forces. The nature of aesthetics and school of criticism often determines where these break points lie, since a neoplatonist is likely to champion didacticism, because Plato believed in usefulness over artistry. A Russian formalist would disagree, as form always triumphs over message. Obviously a laymen isn't thinking in those terms, but they'll often try to frame it through words like 'immersion' or clichés like 'show don't tell' to better capture their thoughts and feelings about media, because New Criticism is biggest modern school and bleeds into a lot of public consciousness whether they realize it or not, via concepts such as organic unity, close reading, and the idea that everyone is capable of criticism.