Tuesday, 3 January 2017

On Book Reviews and Film Reviews

I noticed something about this blog: I have many film reviews but hardly any book reviews. 

I am going to work towards changing this. This doesn’t reflect my choice of activity at all (I prefer reading a billion times more than watching films) though it does highlight something interesting about my personality (and I think, in an extrapolated sense, other people’s, too): the more I enjoy something, the less likely I am to criticise it. (Or, when I’m given writing to critique/edit, I am a coldhearted yet constructive bitch.)

I read mostly fantasy because I enjoy the world-building, I enjoy the magic, and I enjoy the mythical creatures. If I’m captivated by these elements, it means that sub-par plot, speech, characterisation and description isn’t entirely problematic. (If I’m not captivated by these fantasy-genre features, I completely forget about the book.)

With a film, though, it’s different. Films are so short compared to books that either there doesn’t need to be any world building (I am more diverse in my film genres) or world can’t be built to any significant extent (either a lot gets left out and it feels incomplete or everything is shoved in and the film becomes a list). As a consequence, plot, speech and characterisation become the centre-point of focus; without distraction from the world-building, I can become much more critical.

So this, combined with my ability to turn on the critique bitch, means I will be writing book reviews soon!

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