Trend Bashing

March 22, 2012

For all the shit I'm hearing.

Is it just me, or have you noticed a trend in bashing the latest trend? It all goes back to the Douche Bag my buddy Jessica dealt with last week and his complaint about The Hunger Games books. I first noticed the "trend bashing" with Twilight, about the time the movie came out. Now, I'm not saying you can't dislike something. I don't like "Sex and the City" but you don't see me throwing hate parties on my blog about it. If you want to complain that Bella was weak, Edward was too perfect, and for the love of GOD, Taylor, put your shirt on! That's fine. But it's the BASHING I can't stand. The nonstop bitching and complaining and on and on and on that Stephenie Meyer sucks as a writer (though her bank account might disagree with you), and her stories are for shit and blah blah blah.

Just gets old.

I remember when The Hunger Games came out, everyone was raving about it. How amazing Suzanne Collins writing is and well, yes, I agree. But now, on the eve of the movie, I've been hearing a bit of bashing. Like with Jessica's Douche Bag buddy (though he wasn't so much bashing as he was exaggerating his point.) I also read some bashing on a blog the other day. Saw some tweeters complaining about the movie hype, saying that there was way more hype than the quality of the book warrants because X book was way better. (I had to look up X, at it was some literary piece. And no, X is not the title, just a generic name.)

PEOPLE! IT'S NOT GOING TO WIN THE NOBLE PIECE PRIZE!
That does not make it a bad book. It's a "commercial" book and there's nothing wrong with that. And just because a book gets made into a movie doesn't mean it's bad writing either.

Sure, what I'm hearing is not as bad as the beating Twilight gets...yet. But I wonder if it will eventually snowball into that. I hope not. I can only guess the reason behind bashing something so popular. Jealousy? A need to prove you are way cooler than the trends? Whatever. If you don't like something, complain in an intelligent tactful way. Otherwise, you just look like an ass.

Have you heard about any Hunger Games bashing? (For the book.)

5 comments

Riley RedgateMarch 22, 2012 at 3:47 PM
Yup, I've seen the bashing, and HOO BOY IT MAKES ME SO MAD! You know what the number one complaint I've seen about Hunger Games is?

It's a YA book.

That's it. THAT'S SOME PEOPLE'S ONLY BASIS FOR HATRED. People on RottenTomatoes and film sites and stuff are like "UGH LIEK omG TEEN LIT IS SO NOT REAL BOOKS KJFHJDS" and I'm like... "Jump in a pit."

I like throwing my favorite quote at them:

“Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”
― C.S. Lewis

Love this post, by the way! I hate when people fixate on the negative. I'd much rather talk about a book I love than rant about "UGHHH TWILIGHT!!11!11one!1eleven"
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Dana ElmendorfMarch 22, 2012 at 6:43 PM
Riley you're right, it's that negative hate that turns me off too. And I love the CS Lewis quote. He's so right! Thank you for sharing. And I love when you stop by. :)
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Nicole McMarch 23, 2012 at 6:01 AM
Riley's C.S. Lewis quote is the bomb!! Good post.

Go Hunger Games!!!!! Can't wait!
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Leslie RoseMarch 24, 2012 at 9:18 PM
Here, here to the C.S. Lewis quote. I knew I loved that guy. I devoured all the Twilight books and all the Hunger Game books. Both series have inspired me to write for teens.
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Anne RileyMarch 25, 2012 at 12:14 PM
This happened with Harry Potter, too! I don't know why people bash popular stuff. It might be what you suggested--they need to feel "better" than a trend, like they are too cool to go along with whatever everybody else is doing. It's ridiculous!
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