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| Lightsaber photography is an art and science all of its own. |
Like pretty much everyone in the entire world, I'm starting to get excited about the new Star Wars. The trailers had me giddy with anticipation and almost made me cry. I've been streaming the "Best of Star Wars" Spotify playlist as I write this. Heck, just look at the above photo. That's the lightsaber I bought at Disneyland (yeah Season of the Force!) and have been swinging around every day since, pretending I'm a Toshiro Mifune-esque Samurai Jedi or Sith who defeats all his opponents with a single, perfectly calculated, expert slice. No, I don't have photo or video evidence of that; I'd like to maintain some dignity. I ain't no Star Wars Kid!
What were we talking about again? Oh, right: Star Wars is almost in the motha fuckin' hizouse!!! However, I'm doing my best to keep my excitement and expectations in check, because a growing problem has been facing our culture: hype. More specifically, over-hype.
There are three parts to this problem: marketing, pre-release, and post-release hype. Marketing is what the product makers bombard us with relentlessly: the various and inescapable ads, slews of articles and interviews which somehow pass for news, flimsy tie-ins or promotions, and toys and merchandising which range from cool and cute to "oh for fuck's sake!" With Star Wars, this has particularly gotten out of hand as Disney ain't got no chill. They're pushing out some truly awful and inexplicably embarrassing shit: CoverGirl makeup, basketball hoops, tents, duct tape, condiments, kitchen utensils, food packaging (seriously, just the labels on the food), toasters, shower heads, etc...basically anything and everything you can think of that has no reason whatsoever to be tied into Star Wars. Calm down, Disney. Sheesh.
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| Are you fucking kidding me, Disney???!!! |
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| What the hell does Darth Vader have to do with apples? An Apple a day surely didn't keep the dark side away... |
Often, we get so inundated with marketing from an upcoming work—to the point where you can't go anywhere or do anything without it being in your face—that it almost makes me not want to see it anymore. It's like gorging on Thanksgiving food until you feel like throwing it all up, except if the host was literally shoving it down your throat. This kind of of over-hype is largely out of our control; we don't directly decide what idiotic crap they'll make and how insanely they'll saturate the market. We can, however, persuade their future decisions by not consuming and buying so much stupid shit. We can cast our vote with our wallet (or the wallet of advertisers via our clicks). But let's face it: that's never going to happen because we're all—every single last one us, myself included—gullible and a little bit stupid.
So let's focus on what is fully in our control and a little easier to face, though still challenging: pre-release and post-release hype. Pre-release is what we all collectively do when we're excited about an upcoming work of art or entertainment: all those water-cooler chats with coworkers about the new trailer, the "are you as fucking excited as I am" exchanges with friends, and the endless social media hypedates (a term I just made up [and should trademark] that denotes a social media update to get hyped up over something). Post-release hype is overly gushing about a work, after you've actually seen it, to anyone and everyone who will listen.
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| We're all doing the same drug right now, and that drug is Star Wars...and maybe Christmas |
There's nothing inherently wrong with getting excited and jazzed about something you're looking forward to, or wanting to share the experience afterward. If done reasonably, it's all good. Sharing our excitement and experiences with each other is an important part of our culture and social needs. The problem is we don't do it reasonably or rationally; we get far too carried away. So what's the big deal? Expectation has a direct correlation to enjoyment of something. Too much expectation and a work of art will never be able to live up to it. On the flip side, expectations so low and you're pleasantly surprised by how much you enjoyed something. Also, hearing about something too much before we experience it can make us bitter and turned off before we even give it a shot. Hype has the power to ruin something. We've all been shooting ourselves in the foot.
For example, despite being a theatre major, I somehow missed out on the "Moulin Rouge" train when it came out my senior year of high school. I didn't see it until halfway through college, and by the time I did, I had been subjected to an endless parade of raucous hype along the lines of, "OMG IT'S THE GREATEST MOVIE EVAH!" I had stomached too many indignant gasps of disbelief that I hadn't seen it, followed by forceful campaigning to get me to do so. Eventually, I finally did see it, and I thought it was the most over-hyped piece of shit I had ever seen. My perception of it had little to do with the quality of the film. In fact, I suspect I would have liked it just fine had it not been hyped up so much for years. But because of all that hype, my expectations were subconsciously built up so high—through no effort of my own— that the actual film fell vastly short. Moreover, I went into it already feeling sour because of the overbearing hype, having wished everyone would have just shut the fuck up.
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| Precisely how I felt when I finally saw it. |
It doesn't even take years of over-hype either; a friend of mine had a similar experience with "Mad Max: Fury Road" this summer after just a couple weeks of hype. His reaction wasn't as dramatic as mine, since the amount of hype he had been subjected to wasn't nearly as great, but his enjoyment of the film was highly compromised nonetheless.
When we act like something is the greatest thing since sliced bread, we royally screw up other people's ability to enjoy it as much as we did and then they don't get to have the joy of sharing in the experience. Come to think of it, sliced bread really isn't all that great either; it's just bad carbs! But I digress. No one wants to set themselves, or others that they care about, up for disappointment; it just happens when get carried away. A lot of the over-hype happens unconsciously, so it's really hard to combat and overcome. When we hype something up, we assume that our one action isn't a big deal and doesn't have that much effect, and we're right. It's the collective whole that does, and we're all a small part of that. If we would all just temper our hype a little bit, everyone would stand a better chance to enjoy and share in big cultural experiences. For the common good, please let us all try.
This does not mean not getting excited or sharing our opinion, just moderating our language and actions. For pre-release hype, we automatically build up expectations in ourselves and others when we say stuff like, "OMG I can't wait for it. It's going to the the best movie ever!" The problem isn't being excited, it's the language that declares a verdict when the jury hasn't even heard any testimony yet because the trial hasn't even started. Nothing can compete with that. Instead, we could say something like, "OMG I can't wait for it. I hope it's good!" That language still expresses our anticipation while addressing the TBD nature of the bridge that hasn't been crossed yet. It takes nothing away from our enthusiasm; it just ensures that it's rational and doesn't negatively affect our own and others expectations.
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| Okay, maybe we don't need to mitigate our language THIS much. |
With post-release hype, we just need to all remind ourselves that glowing too much about it hinders the future enjoyment of those that haven't seen it yet. "Best movie ever" oversells and overstimulates the imagination, which is seldom matched or bested by reality, as well as denotes objective quality rather than subjective. Let's face it; art is the most subjective thing on Earth. "You have to see it" is far too pushy and socially coercive, creating feelings of obligation to enjoy something, and obligation is the mortal enemy of joy. "You'll love it" personalizes the review too much, creating feelings of certainty that make the fall that much harder.
Instead of such red-hot, rosy tinted, and sizzling language, we should temper the flames with more subjective and moderated language. "I thought it was great" casually expresses one's enjoyment without shoving it down the throat like a salesmen, and addresses the subjective nature of the art, which is open to differing feelings and opinions. "I recommend it" encourages one to join the experience without feeling pushed or browbeaten, thereby freeing one to impartially judge on their own terms. "I think you would like it" shows that you believe you know someone well enough to think about what they might like, but without making it seem guaranteed. Thus leaving valuable wiggle room. Instead of grating on people or pissing them off, all of these create a friendlier, open, peaceful, and subjective environment.
Getting excited about things is great; we need to and should do so to get through life that can be really hard in a world that can be really ugly and harsh. But getting too excited and thrusting that overexcitement on others can be a problem. Let's all band together and be a little more considerate about how we frame things. Then we can all share in cultural joys and experiences together :)
May the force be with you!
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