A huge part of enjoying media objects in good faith is figuring out where you stand in relation to…

A huge part of enjoying media objects in good faith is figuring out where you stand in relation to the media object & where you both stand in relationship to the world. When we consume media, it becomes a part of us and changes us in complex ways. Honest criticism and introspection, while it may be occasionally uncomfortable (and may often be uncomfortable for folks who are afraid of themselves), is the most fruitful source of media enjoyment.

I spent decades thinking and arguing about Evangelion — getting enormous pleasure from this in the process — precisely because I didn’t stop at the level of “fighting robots cool” or “Misato hot” but instead engaged specifically with the parts that disturbed me. This changed me fundamentally — mostly for the better. Like: why do young men either strongly identify with or strongly reject Shinji? Because we’ve all wallowed in self-loathing and treated other people as serotonin dispensers. We’ve been shitty to other people and to ourselves, and it hurts to remember.

If you don’t engage in why you have your initial reactions and preferences, you’re leaving 90% of the content on the table, because every media object is an iceberg. And if you don’t engage in this, you won’t notice when your enjoyments are shallow but your complaints are deep. When the things you like about a media object are shallow but your misgivings are deep, you’re not going to get any repeat-viewing value. If you don’t let yourself be honest about why you like things, you can’t tell if something’s a keeper — if it could become important to you.