#18: Self Serving
Topics today include Rotten Tomatoes, self citations, media consumption lists, and teenagers in their twenties
Hiiiii. Happy Wednesday. I know Left On Read is inherently a very personal newsletter, but something about today feels like a high concentration of Sarah-specific content……….
What Becomes a Critic Most
There was a huge wave of reporting on deficiencies in arts and entertainment review aggregators this summer, spurring conversations around criticism and commerce. Goodreads got attention for its unchecked power to tank unpublished work. “Blurbing” in book publishing was outed for its (not so secret) underlying nepotism. The seedy (heh) underbelly of tampering with Rotten Tomatoes scores was given the One Great Story treatment by NYMag.
For her piece on blurbing, Helen Lewis notes the arts have switched “from a traditional critical culture to an internet-centered one driven by influencers and reliant on user reviews.” The same way we’d elicit peer and influencer recommendations for detergent or desktop computers, we’ve come to expect for more subjective experiences. This is troublesome. Polarized work in either direction leaves very little room for discovery and individual assessment. If the goal is to sell the most books or movie tickets, businesses will absolutely game the system to maximize profit. Blurbing and review sites, as it happens, are both very simple systems to game.
The Rotten article cites a line from Martin Scorsese’s 2017 Hollywood Reporter column. I think the whole quote is worth reproducing here:
Online “aggregators” like Rotten Tomatoes… have absolutely nothing to do with real film criticism. They rate a picture the way you’d rate a horse at the racetrack, a restaurant in a Zagat’s guide, or a household appliance in Consumer Reports. They have everything to do with the movie business and absolutely nothing to do with either the creation or the intelligent viewing of film. The filmmaker is reduced to a content manufacturer and the viewer to an unadventurous consumer.
I understand why we can’t write every director a blank check. Still, it’s a bummer that the business need is increasingly outweighing the artist’s need. Not to mention, completely disrespecting the audience by assuming a one size fits all approach to art. And reducing our tastes as a result.1
Self Citations
This Maris Kreizman tweet,.... Me coded AF. From Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger (out today):
I self cite allllll the time in this newsletter. Partially because it’s a hold out from my marketing best practice days: If you’re writing a post that has anything—literally anything—to do with other articles on the company site, you better be linking to keep the reader on the site for as long as possible :) And partially because it’s an opportunity to familiarize readers with my POV. A QuickStart for getting a handle on subjects I’m often revisiting. Which I guess is about credit claiming and staking out a spot among “the other cultural detritus”…..
Doppelganger is already high in the TBR queue and getting higher. From the jacket copy:
What do we neglect as we polish and perfect our digital reflections? Is it possible to dispose of our doubles and overcome the pathologies of a culture of multiplication? Can we create a politics of collective care and undertake a true reckoning with historical crimes?
Ummmm, hello, right up my alley?? Will report back!!!!!!!
Consumption Lists
I know that documenting inspiration and making favorite lists isn’t NEW for artists and writers.2 But lately I’m noticing consumption lists everywhere, the key difference being the suspension of curated selections. Less perfected recipe, more pantry contents. Maybe because it’s a low lift and cool behind the scenes feature, especially for Substack writers.
publishes her “15 Things I Consumed” list each week. compiles daily links she reads about youth culture. started releasing her film log a couple weeks ago. Dirt alerted me that Steven Soderbergh publishes his media diary every year. I love this practice and I’m always really interested to see where lists overlap, where there’s noise and excitement. Left On Read MO has always been to synthesize and connect what I consume and run a narrative thread through for this very reason!
Teenage Twenty-somethings
I PROMISE that next week’s newsletter will be popstar free. I really do. Olivia Rodrigo’s album release impels me to write about pop music just one more time. Specifically, the phenomenon of “teenagers in their twenties,” an offshoot of the “girl trends” discourse Rebecca Jennings summarized and skewered in her piece for Vox (worth a read, she makes a few great points)
Rodrigo’s music is presumably for peers her junior. Incredibly, she’s captured the ears (and streams) of an older demographic… women in their late twenties and thirties. TikToks, tweets, and memes have mined this observation to dust. Some with an undercurrent of shame! Which is silly. Age specific art is a dumb assignation to me. For many listeners, the album offers a fresh, fun means of revisiting past versions of ourselves. As Mia Mercado wrote about Rodrigo’s first album, Sour, “I haven’t been 18 for a while now, but there are bits of the album that remind me of who I was and who I wanted to eventually be… [I feel] a combination of nostalgia and bittersweetness and levity.” I think what people forget is that those emotions aren’t exclusive to teenage years. It’s our awakening to them, sure, and they’re more potent for that reason, but we’re just as full of complicated emotions today. It might not feel that way because we’ve gained tools to deal with it (good) or because we numb it (bad). Offenses vary. Betrayal cuts the same at 18 as it does at 28 or 38.
You know that adage, “Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late”? Rodrigo’s teenage fans in their twenties get it. Many women get the short end of adolescence; they’re petrified of rocking the boat, exploring their identities, expressing their sexuality for fear of retaliation—both imagined and very, very real. Some don’t even get a chance at girlhood—roll tape of Brynn on RHONY discussing her late in life prep school hobbies—so if they want to reclaim their girlhood by listening to pop music and getting third piercings and wearing bows on their bags… f*cking let them. Life’s too short to take the blame for perpetuating the patriarchy’s infantilization of women while other more culpable parties walk free.
Circling Back
Congratulations to Coco!!!!!!!!! And Barilla!!!!! Lots of puzzled fans clocked the logo on her New Balance fit, including me. I asked Resident Tennis Expert Jan Lambert about the sponsorship. Apparently it’s with precedent! Roger Federer’s been a brand ambassador for years. Because carb loading! Remember the bucatini discourse of 2020? I fondly associate Barilla with that. Maybe Challengers can get a Barilla Red Sauce Carpet next April.
M.B.A. Students vs. ChatGPT: Who Comes Up With More Innovative Ideas? I have one foot in the business world and one foot in the creative so I’m not entirely shocked by the results of this study. The professors come to a similar conclusion as the engineers behind TextFX: AI is an exceptional tool for innovators because of its prolificness but it can’t replace human discretion and critical thinking. Which is a nice idea until you consider, uh, that critical thinking skills are declining as a direct result of too much technology use. Anyway. I’d like to see the study replicated with art students.
Relatedly, Director Richard Linklater on AI. You think AI could have written Before Sunrise? YOu’re wRong.
Get Out is returning to theaters. We know I’m pro-re-releases but let’s get a fair deal soooooon
Willie Nelson and Natasha Lyonne confirmed Muppetheads Okay let’s date.
Another Haunted Mansion fumble Lol updates to the amusement ride coming late November… decidedly NOT spooky season
Sidewalk Reporting
I failed to take any photos on walks this week (too busy blistering in the sun). So please enjoy this semi-recent photo of Left On Read’s favorite Sidewalk Correspondent, Sophie Lambert.
As always, thanks for reading!!!!
In an effort to be Generative Not Destructive: Metacritic and Book Marks are more trustworthy review aggregators btw
Smash cut to me circa 2006 cross-referencing Stephanie Meyer’s website with iTunes to buy every single track from her “Twilight writing soundtrack” :’)