Sally, 9/11

Again, I find lecture in this class to be thought-provoking and timely. Disussion of the "democratization of the obscure critic" took center stage for me Tuesday night. Along with commentary by the critical theorist of the week, Walter Benjamin, Dr. Casey's comments laid an important foundation for the topic at hand. The topic was primarily the mechanization of art, its resulting impact on society, and the designation of the public as critics of art/film. He relayed his experience of subscribing to a popular DVD rental service; upon return of a movie rental, he received an email inviting him to review the movie just viewed. This rating system is used to provide ratings for other viewers in search of a movie. On the surface, we can assume the company has good intentions in utilizing this system/service, but how useful is this, really? When you consider that the viewing public is diverse in their interests and are at a variety of educational levels, what is the chance a review will be helpful to YOU? Now, that's a broad question with a seemingly irrelevant answer - yes, no, maybe.

The "critic" was perhaps limited in evaluating the movie by his vocabulary, life experience, or mood. Or maybe he is overqualified and writes a review that is uniquely his (i.e., you can't decipher what the review has to do with the movie!) On what criteria was the movie evaluated? Was it historically accurate? Was it an emotional roller coaster for one person due to their experiences and heartache, or simply boring to another because they lacked that particular emotional thread? Was one "critic" able to articulate the social significance of the film while another was at a loss as to whether this was satire or just a "horribly violent film." (Natural Born Killers comes to mind, as does American History X - both very powerful, and important, commentaries on media/gratuitous murder and racism.) Benjamin writes, "the greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. (29) In other words, the more popular something is, the less the critics think it has value. Benjamin must be referring to intellectual critics - not the public - for in another another comment, he states: "The public is an examiner, but an absent-minded one." (33) In the essay by Benjamin, he does make the distinction that the public referred to is the proletariat (the working class) and they are the most subject to exploitation. I would agree and the rise of the obscure critic strengthens that view. I would imagine that Benjamin would think the rating system implemented by the popular DVD rental service is an exercise in vanity by the "absent-minded" public in general. Certainly, there may be on-point reviews to be found, but, I find the voice of the obscure critic to be in its very essence self-centered and vain, although perhaps well-intentioned (as in, I-thought-this-movie-was-great-and-you-should-see-it!) Overall, our culture promotes these transient and time-wasting activities - where are our priorities?!