tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826783898962653229.post2392169818449338071..comments2023-10-18T08:34:32.335-07:00Comments on Banana Pepper Martinis: Pauline Kael - 2Kirk Battlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16612840105075834275noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826783898962653229.post-72047749225815965552008-11-22T14:46:00.000-08:002008-11-22T14:46:00.000-08:00That's kind of crazy, I almost never think of meas...That's kind of crazy, I almost never think of measuring my judgment of a game against others' opinions. Maybe it's that I don't write for any legit outlet, so I feel no need to achieve a relative measure of objectivity. <BR/><BR/>However, I do think I try to keep two issues distinct. On one hand, you can recognize what a game is trying to do, analyze how its various elements work together to create some experience. And on the other hand that experience can appeal to you or not. I think the former is relatively objective, while the latter is not. <BR/><BR/>this probably ties into your point about Moore-- I really don't think criticism is about persuading someone of my opinion so much as a means of getting insight into some object. Like, you are trying to get someone to think about an object in a certain way but that's not the first-order goal of criticism.Iroquois Pliskinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14324582950813408440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826783898962653229.post-32335654152133087042008-11-22T05:25:00.000-08:002008-11-22T05:25:00.000-08:00You know, I really ought to clarify that. By hinds...You know, I really ought to clarify that. By hindsight, I mean I read other reviews and listen to people's likes and dislikes. I also check forums and see what people are complaining about. It makes it so I don't just factor in my own opinion, but the reactions of other people as well. <BR/><BR/>It just seems like the most appropriate way to review a video game.Kirk Battlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16612840105075834275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826783898962653229.post-47829655671591116122008-11-21T18:05:00.000-08:002008-11-21T18:05:00.000-08:00I think I remember spotting that one. For as many ...I think I remember spotting that one. For as many pages I marked where she said something obnoxious there are ones where she said something brilliant. When she is in the mood, she can do quite a lot.<BR/><BR/>It's odd, I was struggling to explain why I found her using her writing abilities for merely insulting other critics in that last piece. Before I wrote this essay, I'd watched a movie that interviewed Alan Moore and was mostly just him explaining his beliefs about shamanism and magic. To him, it has nothing to do with supernatural powers but rather your ability to communicate ideas that are outside the group's normal thought. Magic was simply an unusually sophisticated understanding of issues and the ability to communicate a solution. Ergo, why culturally wizards have to say words to cast spells, etc.<BR/><BR/>It wasn't so much that I was persuaded by his interpretation of anthropology, but his argument that there is an intrinsic responsibility to being able to wield that power. He pointed out that one of the greatest travesties of society today was that most of our magi just work in advertising convincing us to buy crap we don't need. The others drink booze or take drugs to deny that responsibility. It reminded me of Gnosticism for some reason, but I'm not sure what that meant yet.<BR/><BR/>With Kael...it was just my outrage at her using her abilities to trash people. Like you, I'm continually impressed by how good she is. But I just don't get why she's using it for this. The moral question any critic must face is not what their medium can do to fulfill their fantasies. It's how they can help that medium achieve it. The next post I'm going to try to go into what she does right and praise her more.<BR/><BR/>As for the review scores...ha, I think I'll keep that secret for a bit longer. I'm very lucky that I can read the metacritic response to a game before I write my review, so I get to include a lot more hindsight.Kirk Battlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16612840105075834275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826783898962653229.post-77502847083945712842008-11-21T14:27:00.000-08:002008-11-21T14:27:00.000-08:00Hey, I like these pieces on Kael. (I wrote up a p...Hey, I like these pieces on Kael. (I wrote up a piece on her myself, talking about her defense of Trash.) <BR/><BR/>I think when people demand a critic like Kael I don't necessarily think that we need someone with her kind of idiosyncrasies and critical leverage on the success of individual movies. That's not the point.<BR/><BR/>What we need is someone who can write that well. It's a big deal. As you note, Kael's not a evenhanded critical thinker but she could write circles around any game critic. that shit matters. Ditto lester bangs, the other famous critic that tends to come up when we talk about games criticism. <BR/><BR/>Second, we need someone who has a strong viewpoint about what constitutes excellence in the medium. I don't buy Kael's view that movies are, at their best, sophisticated pleasure-producing machines. (Like you, I'm a Matthew Arnold-Lionel Trilling man.) But it's a view. It would be great if we had critics in the video games space who had a view at all, let alone the ability to propagandize for it with Kael's command of prose. <BR/><BR/>Also: you give good grades to games you don't like? I'm intrigued.Iroquois Pliskinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14324582950813408440noreply@blogger.com