Let's Continue the Conversation

It’s really been awhile, hasn’t it?  I really don’t have an explanation for why I haven’t posted anything in a year, but now’s as good a time as any to get back in action.  Why don’t we think of it as a version of my favorite story template: somebody getting called out of retirement, though hopefully this will be for more than one last job.  And as this kind of feels like a new start, I would like to make this post a manifesto of sorts.

I would like to propose an indefinite moratorium on the word overrated: the favorite word for when we just don’t really like something that everyone else seems to love.  Don’t get me wrong: I understand the appeal.  It can be fun to hate a movie that everyone loves and feel like you’re the only one who really gets it.  I have no problem with that.  Cultural conversation needs contrarian voices.

My problem is with that word specifically.  I’m sure we’ve all used it or heard it used.  The conversation usually goes something like this:

“I just saw The Dark Knight (or Gravity or Titanic).”

“That movie is overrated.”

To reiterate, I have no problem with someone not liking those pictures or others that have wide acclaim or popular success.  We need debate and conversation.  We need people to say, “I didn’t see what everyone else is seeing.”  There is no question about this.

But isn’t the above hypothetical conversation boring?  Even if it eventually becomes an interesting, critical debate, the part with the word “overrated” is the most boring part.  And far too frequently, I think this conversation doesn’t continue.  It ends with “I liked it” and “It’s overrated.”  I know I’ve had many conversations like that.  It’s a conversation ender.

To be fair, any conversation that just involves two people giving their opinions is boring.  There is nothing interesting in saying whether or not you liked something.  The interesting part comes later in the explanation and the use of evidence from the work to support your argument.  The most interesting part will be if someone brings a particular perspective to a work that is challenging, provocative, or just something you had never thought of before.  That is perhaps the highest goal of criticism: to provide an argument or perspective that makes someone view a work in a different light.  Not necessarily to change someone’s opinion, but simply to get the reader to think about something from a different perspective.  Just saying that you liked something or didn’t like something is boring.

But here’s the thing: saying that something is overrated is even more boring.  “Overrated” runs the gamut from “I hated it” to “I just didn’t like it as much as you.”  It’s a worthless opinion that adds nothing to the conversation and allows the person saying it to avoid taking an actual stand or make an actual argument.  If you hated it, say you hated it.  If you liked it but have problems with it, say that.  “Overrated” says nothing about what you actually think.  It’s really more about what other people think: all we know is that a lot of people like whatever it is you’re talking about.  Why not just make an argument that isn’t relative to other people?

But there’s another problem with this word that I think is more sinister and troublesome.  There’s saying that you didn’t like something as much as someone else.  There’s saying that you flat-out hated it.  And then there’s saying that other people shouldn’t like it.  That last one is why this word is a conversation ender and why it has no place in rational, adult debate.  In a way, this goes back to my previous point: what does it matter what the majority of people think?  Just make your own argument.  But in another way, I think that there’s something really mean-spirited about this word.

Whenever a critic pans a popular movie (particularly if it’s a comic book movie these days), there is invariably a large, negative reaction from that movie’s fans.  And amidst the endless screams and inane babble (as Gandalf would say), the idea often comes up that the critic wants to ruin their fun, that they are being told not to like something.  Obviously, the truth is that a negative review is not an attack on people who enjoy a movie nor is it trying to ruin anyone’s fun.  The purpose of criticism is to add a perspective to the conversation, and a negative review is not about telling the reader to not like a particular movie.  Again, the whole liking/disliking thing is the least interesting part of the conversation.

But saying that a movie is overrated is literally saying that people like a movie too much and that they should not like that movie as much as they do.  It’s not about offering your perspective.  It’s about telling others how to feel, thereby denying their perspectives.  That would constitute trying to ruin someone’s fun (though it would still not constitute an excuse for the horrible behavior that occurs on the comment sections of negative reviews).  What should it matter that someone derives joy from something that you do not particularly like?  Say that you hate the movie or that someone’s argument in support of it is weak.  That’s all part of the critical conversation.  Saying that someone shouldn’t enjoy something is not.

By the way, I don’t have the same problem with the word “underrated.”  Why?  Because it’s positive.  It’s all about saying that something has been unfairly maligned and deserves another chances.  It still falls into the category of telling people that their opinions are wrong, but it’s not nearly as mean-spirited.   The only purpose of saying something is overrated is to take away joy, but at its best, saying that something is underrated can add joy.  And it can actually add something to the conversation because it’s probably a new perspective and isn’t nearly as wishy-washy a position as “overrated” because people don’t generally say that a movie they disliked but didn’t hate is “underrated.”  There still needs to be evidence and an argument, but the word itself can stay.

So keep on being contrarian.  Nit-pick, overanalyze, tear down what’s popular.  Comment on cultural phenomena and analyze their implications.  But stop using that god-awful word “overrated.”  It’s a boring, mean-spirited, empty word that adds nothing to the conversation and takes up precious space for more words that could add something.  Liking and disliking is uninteresting.  The conversation is everything.