Hasslein Blog: Don't Spend Money or Time Just to See How Bad Something Is

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Hasslein Blog

Monday, February 3, 2014

Don't Spend Money or Time Just to See How Bad Something Is

By Rocko Jerome

I’ve seen The Expendables 2 but not Lawrence of Arabia. This is reflective of a deep personal failing. I even saw the first Expendables, and then I knowingly bought a ticket to see the sequel, realizing full well that I was going to sit through another movie that I would find insipid and leave feeling that I wasted my money and time, neither of which I could ever have back. All the while, Lawrence of Arabia waits for me.

We’ve all done it, I’m sure. There’s no explaining the massive success of so many bad things without the application of the “hate watching” principle, in which people consume entertainment the same way they might eat Chef Boyardee canned ravioli. But while canned ravioli might be all you have the resources for at the moment, you will never have a good reason to watch Paranormal Activity 3. Especially if you’ve never seen Citizen Kane.

I hear it all the time, and I’ve said it myself: “I’m just going to see how bad it is.” Why do we do this to ourselves? There’s only so much time we get on this planet, but we waste it and cram mundane junk into our brains. By doing so, we leave quality brain food on the table instead.

There’s a certain immunity that I’ll grant things like The Room and Garzey’s Wing. There are works of art that turn out so horribly and inadvertently entertaining for the wrong reasons that it’s fascinating to try to determine how they came to exist in the first place, and fun to watch in groups. I’m talking more about things that are just plain mediocre, and that transversely seem to make a disgustingly large amount of money anyway. It says something very scary about our society that Twilight and reality television are such huge cash cows.

All I’m saying is that if you know better, I urge you to act like it--your quality of life will be greater.


Rocko Jerome has lived many lives. Right now, he's a writer. You can read Rocko's work at his blog and at Atomic Wanderers.

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1 Comments:

At March 8, 2014 at 7:43 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I watch a bad movie every now and then, just to remind myself of how bad things can get. If everything you watch is good, then you can lose perspective.

 

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