Quality by Reputation

Is it going to become a trend for me to start blog posts around midnight? Bah. Inspiration strikes when it does, and I usually have a computer handy around that time anyway.

Two things happened to me today that made me think about people's perception of others. I realized that there is a point where people start to like things that are made by those they like, regardless of the quality. Not just tell them that they like it, as manners would have them do, but legitimately enjoy it. I know it seems kind of obvious on paper(/your screen), but it was especially clear to me today.

I've been working at a children theatre academy for the last two weeks now, and today all the groups presented what they've been working on to their parents and whonot. This included improvisation, and one of my students chose to, despite my encouragement to take a risk and try something new, use a character that had made numerous appearances throughout the last week, named Jerry. I was absent on the day Jerry was introduced, but I'd seen him more than once. Trust me, the kid made sure of it.

Every time Jerry was used in improv class, all of my students would burst out laughing at almost everything he said. But I never found Jerry to be as amusing as they did. However, I found I wasn't the only one today, as Jerry was causing the class to laugh their brains out onstage, while the audience only looked on with blank faces.

It was then that I realized that Jerry wasn't actually funny at all. Perhaps he was upon his first appearance, but each subsequent time added nothing new and nothing entertaining. Our class only found Jerry to be so funny because they made the decision in their heads that Jerry was hilarious, and the reputation they created around him brought them to be so entertained.

The other event of the day was my attempt at starting to read Tarantula, the only novel ever written by Bob Dylan. At least, I'm told it's a novel. It says so in the introduction. But the book is largely incoherent nonsense. It reads like a stream-of-consciousness Bob Dylan song in a way, but less coherent, and 150 pages long. Given the ability to write as much as he wanted, he did, and about anything and everything. It feels like my brain was put into a blender with a poetry book and a thesaurus.

Here's a sample of the book, and I assure you this is not an exception in his writing style: "manuscript nitemare of cut throat high & low & behold the prophesying blin allegiance to law fox, monthly cupid & the intoxicating ghosts of dogma...nay & may the boatmen in bathrobes be banished forever & anointed into the shelves of alive hell, the unimaginative sleep, repetition without change & fat sheriffs who watch for doom in the mattress..." (Note: the formatting is all his.)

It feels like something my English teacher would say has a deep and powerful meaning, but my class scoffs at behind her back. Thus, the majority of America would also find this to be hogwash, and with a name like Bob Dylan behind the book, I'm shocked it hasn't become infamous. But rather, my research shows that the book has received almost nothing but praise. And I did my research on the internet, which is probably the harshest critical environment in the world.

Why? Because it has Bob Dylan's name on it. Since Dylan's music is brilliant, his fans loved the book before they even bought it.

So is this phenomena a good thing or a bad thing? It could trick someone into liking something they wouldn't otherwise, and give them enjoyment out of an otherwise useless piece. But it also makes it much more difficult for new artists and writers to emerge when viewers are so connected to their favorite, despite their potential talent and ability to surpass their predecessors. Whatever it may be, there isn't anything we can do about it anyways.

So if you think I'm right or wrong, if you read Tarantula and found it to be moving, if you were in my improv class and want to explain what it was that was so funny about Jerry, let me know in the comments. Or just let me know you read this. Whatever. Comments boost my self esteem.