Welcome back to the wasteland, folks!
Been a bit, but here's a new post I've been musing on for awhile. Part of it got eaten, but it is what it is. Hopefully the newer version is good enough in getting the point across. Today, let us discuss the actual point of doing something.
Do you ever wonder what it is that stories in the mainstream have been missing? No, I don't just mean "quality" or "good writing" but specific things that were once there but have been either subverted or gutted out of them entirely. We can all tell things aren't quite the same beyond preferences, to the point that even younger generations can tell something is wrong. Old industries we once thought were immortal are dying and no one can explain why.
We can go on about what values we wish were or weren't being taught and how they are or aren't, we can even quibble about how well something is done, but that wouldn't be enough to explain the lack of interest in what was supposed to be an industry meant to entertain no longer doing that. All of the above is fine for discussion, but it doesn't get to the root of the issue. What is it, at the heart of all these problems, is the mainstream missing that it once used to have?
The answer, is a point. Entertainment now only exists to be entertainment and nothing more. It is meant to be disposable from the jump.
The above video talks about recent Hollywood products showing a writing class that is devoid of answering questions they have never pondered, but also are incentivized to not even ask any in the first place. In essence, the creative industry is helmed by people who are not (possibly by choice, though it's irrelevant to the point) creative. That this happened does not speak well not only for the future of the industry but also the fact that these systems allow people like this in charge to begin with. The audience has lost their trust, and getting it back is far beyond Herculean.
We can criticize Hollywood for bad writing or improbable and alien characterizations (and they are very valid criticisms to have), but the heart of it is that the writers really don't have anything to say or get across in their creations. They don't have a philosophy or religious impulse, they just have talking points they either want to expound on that will provide the studio with a bomb, or platitudes and plot beats they will hit in order to maybe provide a safe, toothless hit. There is nothing in between these two approaches, and the majority of audiences can sense it. They either hate their audience or are scared of them, neither of which is good for creativity.
Even the video's example of kids movies are one such problem. Did you know that there were such things as family movies a long time ago? They were not made for children, but the entire family. The target audience of The Last Unicorn, Secret of NIMH, and The Great Mouse Detective, is not the same as the movies being made today. This changed because the movies stopped being made for people but for generic demographics, and over time all that has changed is the invention of more demographics and the bitter resignation that the creator will never hit the biggest possible audience this way. As a result you now get directors and stars blaming the general audience when their demographically myopic and incredibly niche movie fails to be a hit.
It was never going to be one, because it was designed to be throwaway. At some point they forgot the point wasn't for the audience to waste time, but to experience something grand. We are a long way away from that era.
Entertainment became disposable over time, and so too did the attitudes of those who engaged these products. In fact, we now use the word "consuming" when talking about entertainment, as if the only value it has is how fast you can swallow and digest it before "consuming" more product, rinse and repeat. This has also coincided with the rise of the generic term "media" as if "consuming media" is the goal instead of "listening" to "music", "reading" a "book", or "watching" a "movie", all of which are different forms of art requiring different modes of engagement. Now it's all the same slop to be shoved down your gullet.
And there is that word again: slop! That is an apt term for modern entertainment and the creators who shovel it out in an attempt to be part of the undistinguished gruel that slides down the random consumer's throat in Current Year. You can't make slop if the intent of your work is to use your medium properly, instead of just making Content for those 5 minutes of possible attention before the next flash in the pan comes around. But that point was lost long ago.
The reason kids are by and large rejecting the old media complex we still mistakenly, and without reason, think is immortal and permanent, is due to the fact that they know it's utterly meaningless. They might not know why that is, but their brain does, and it's because they see how it exists for little more than consumption of slop. Once you taste something better, something that tries even a little to do what it's supposed to do beyond the lowest common denominator, it is impossible to go back again. There is a reason Zoomers are buying vinyl records, Blu-ray/DVDs, and paperbacks, more and more these days, as streaming is stagnating. Even still, getting beaten by 20 second looping videos of silly cats and goofy memes is not an excuse: YouTube is 20 years old and video games are much older. Why is it only now a problem and with the younger audience? Why have they, specifically, given up? As I said, it's because they know what we don't. It's all worthless.
Just look at what older audiences do to "consume media" slop. We rely on intangible websites and electronic devices to supply constant dopamine. Streaming, for instance, is the ultimate Content mill of slop, even worse than cable TV was, and we're all starting to understand that. The kids, however, already know, even if they can't explain why. If it's all meaningless, then what's the difference in watching silly throwaway videos instead? They have as much meaning as the garbage the crusty old industry for old people does. None, only the videos don't pretend to have any. In many ways, it's actually more honest than what we do.
Though part of that is also because the kids have never had any entertainment made for them, therefore this system in turn means nothing to them. As far as their concerned, this is already a dead industry, and they have no problem abandoning an industry that has abandoned them. In other words, they left long ago and have no interest in changing their minds.
And why should they?
This shouldn't be that surprising, except for people who still think the 20th century is the beginning and end of history. The once-popular space battle franchise did not exist in 1976, and it will not exist in 2076. This should all be obvious. It's how it has always worked.
The solution is not to recycle old things endlessly and hope it remains relevant for younger generations. It is to make new things inspired by those old things in order to speak to the younger generations that currently have nothing to call their own. This is how art is meant to work, and it is something we must get back to once again. How do we speak with generations we're choosing to ignore? Perhaps trying would help.
Stories are meant to speak to people, to communicate to them. They don't do that if they're made purely to check boxes or to be easily consumable and tossed out at the first opportunity. "Making content" is not an approach that will improve the situation or better anything that needs bettering, as can be seen by the last decade of lowered engagement and ambition in the arts. The current approach is not working and it will not magically work again someday if we keep mindlessly doing it over and over again with no change.
To paraphrase a statement in the above video: These kids will not turn 25 and then suddenly decide to watch A New Hope. It has nothing to do with them, they have no reason to engage with it, and it is a relic of another age with no relevance to theirs. They're looking for something more than subversion or nostalgia for things they have never had. They want Creation. They want new ways.
When are we going to give it to them?
There's no better time than now, what with the ancient industries in terminal decline and options for alternatives more plentiful than ever before. As younger generations move on from the remains of the past, its time we do the same. It's time to look forward to the future!
We're about due.
