Critical Consumption

I’ve always been curious to know just how many books I’ve read. Sometimes I think i could just sit down and write a list of them all. I’m sure I would forget many books, but I would also have a mighty big list. At the same time, I’m also rereading some books that I’ve read once, or even twice, just to see if the distance of time and maturity changes the way that I once viewed the work. 

This is also true of movies, tv, and music. Albums that I used to play day in and day out in my 20s can now fill me with cringe—was I really that immature back then? Yes, I was. As a bonafide Gen Xer, I can attest that those alt tunes that once seemed so hip and vanguard now sound faded and obnoxious. I’m sure though at some point I’ll return to those albums and feel nostalgia and bliss. Just not right now.

And then there are movies. Throughout my late teens and early twenties, when I had so much agency and free time, I would rent and watch up to three movies a day! In my preteen years, I made a handmade tv schedule of all the shows I would watch and even tracked some of my watching experiences for Nielsen TV Ratings. These days I might watch one movie a week—and that’s over multiple viewing periods of a half hour here, 45 minutes there, etc. And sure, there are some days, mostly on weekends or when I am in bed sick, where I can binge several episodes of a show, but in general I average about 30 minutes of television a day.

What’s changed about my reading, listening, and viewing habits? Media literacy and critical awareness now play a major part in the media I consume. I try to pay more attention to the intersections of creators who have historically been marginalized: people of color, female, queer, disabled, and more. Now that access to creating and distributing media has been more democratized, we can experience stories from a multitude of perspectives once unheard of. Getting right to the point, there’s a world of art beyond what the traditional gatekeepers have been giving us: that of the white, heterosexual male experience. Sure, I may still consume media that features some of these traits, but I also actively choose to pursue media beyond this, because diverse stories are so much more available.

All that to say this page will be devoted to describe, review, and broadly critique the media I’m consuming. Sometimes it will be just a pithy take, but other times it will be a more thoughtful collection of ideas. One thing it won’t be is academic and high-minded. I’m using the words “critical” and “critique” very loosely here, ok? Basically, this is like Letterboxd, but for all forms of media.