Despite my personal opinions to the contrary I have recently become aware that there actually is a Universal Scale of Everything (USoE), on which all things can be rated.
And if the existence of this scale is not enough, it also seems that everyone agrees where thing should go on the scale.
While I’ve witnessed the use of the USoE most recently with movie (‘Harry Potter’, ‘Star Wars II’, ‘The Lord of the Rings’) I’ve have also seen it used with music, formal art, fashion, hairstyles, books, even computer games.
The world is becoming a smaller, more uniform place.
For example, all of my friends have all placed the recent ‘Spiderman’ movie in the section of “piece of crap that should never have been let out of the directors head, and making it was a futile as removing the seeds from a banana” or a score of about ‑2.
I really, really enjoyed Spiderman, I laughed at the funny bits, I cried at the sad bits, I felt empowered as the nerd became a hero, I was impressed by the characters, by the acting, by the story. I refuse to place the movie on the USoE, there is no sense in trying to compare an Action Hollywood Blockbuster with Duchamp ‘Fountain’, or with ‘Gone with the Wind’, or even another Action Hollywood Blockbuster (such as ‘Star Wars II’).
I’m an experiential critter, there is no objectivity here.
So much for relativity
Universal Scale of Everything (USoE)
If you disagree then the scale cannot be universal. I had a chat with Ainsley tonight about relative vs absolute scales. I said that relative scales could appear absolute if enough people around you believed in them. Awareness of such scales can help you relieve stress and influence people. If others think the scale is absolute, but it is not, then they are at a disadvantage. (Incidentally, I liked Spider-man. More on that later on my blog.)
I didn’t say it should never have left the directors head, it’s just that I didn’t enjoy it much. Leaving the theatre, I felt dissapointed.
Part of this could have been expectations, I am generally more of a fan of comics than I am of film.
Secondly, I must state that i’m not a huge spider man fan. As far as superhero characters go, he’s one I read if it’s available but have never contemplated collecting. Maybe by not being a fan, I was able to be more objective.
Thinking about it later, I know spidey has his legion of fans, especially as one of the more geeky/nerdy superheroes he probably gels more with his target audience than many other superheroes do.
My personal geek superhero has always been Beast (of X‑Men fame)