“Better Living Through Criticism” by A.O. Scott attempts to tackle an overwhelming question: Why do we like what we like? Have you ever found yourself looking up the top charts for music to listen to? Maybe looking at the most popular movies? Maybe you do something as simple as ordering the same thing as your friend at a restaurant. A.O. Scott examines why certain likes and dislikes are not accepted in society. Why do we like what we are supposed to like? We are taught to do this from everything and everyone around us. Netflix shows you your Top Picks, Amazon insists on what else to buy, and your friends teach you how to act without receiving criticism. However, criticism holds the power to move the world. And any one person can hold the power of criticism. Not conforming to societal norms can be isolating. Personally, I am often teased about my music taste, for I listen to music from the 1960, 70s, 80s, 90s instead of rap. Because I prefer the Talking Heads over Travis Scott, Billy Joel over Drake, and Fleetwood Mac over Chance the Rapper, I somehow become that piece of the puzzle that doesn’t quite fit. (Yes, I did have to ask a friend who some famous artists are right now in order to write that sentence) Criticism is an outlet to express oneself in the most personal, emotional, vulnerable of ways. It is like swimming upstream; you have to fight the current of society pulling you back into formation. Criticism is its own form of revolution. It starts with a single person– any person. And it grows into a movement and then it grows into social acceptability. On the first page of my commonplace book, I chose to document the quotation, “But is that really a kind of person at all?” (Scott 45). Scott writes this sentence after discussing how the internet often dictates what we like and what we have. It is almost as if these sites are creating a digital person and you are forcing yourself into that mold it made for you. Do these suggestions accurately depict the living breathing human sitting in front of that screen with a credit card in their hand?
On the second page of my commonplace book, I drew a picture of a hand (labeled “criticism”) holding a string that is connected to the Earth. In my opinion, I believe that this perfects represents the power criticism has over how the world spins. If criticism wanted the Earth to spin the other way, it would. If criticism wanted the Earth to be flat, it would flatten it like plato. The string represents this fragile relationship criticism has with society. Although influential, too much can cause society to drop into an endless free-fall of chaos and argument. I imagine in this class, we will be pushed to question what we are told to think; we will be encouraged to speak out if we disagree with a comment given by a classmate or an idea we will read. This is an important skill to learn and feel comfortable with, for there will be times in our lives where not contradicting someone has more consequences than staying silent.
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AuthorJo Palisoc Archives
November 2019
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