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I was reading an interesting essay on media hype yesterday, and it got me thinking. The general gist was that sometimes, too much hype can be a bad thing. And I agree with this, having seen it in action so many times. There's one prime example that immediately leaps to my mind - that I think leaps to everyone's mine - when over hype comes up.
The Star Wars prequels. George Lucas went insane with building these things up and making them out to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, chocolate, and the machete. Now, if something is billed to be as being that great, I expect it to be that great. An entire world of movie going geeks were let down by George Lucas and his hype and his craptastic movies. The media built these movies up to be the alpha and omega of science fiction. Of course we're going to be let down by that!
But what's worse, for me, is not being let down by media hype, but by fanon hype. Because that's not some nameless, faceless PR company shoving it down your throat. That's not George Lucas waxing poetic about his creative vision, it's not Joss Whedon trumpeting that he's the ultimate fan and therefor his works are best, it's not Anne Rice detailing how her books are holy and therefor the ultimate in fiction. It's people I look at as being a lot like me, and therefor I'm more ready to trust them. Getting let down by that is worse. And for the most part, I do get let down - which is purely me, and my own particular tastes.
It's one of the reasons I put off reading the Harry Potter books for so long. I was worried about disappointment. Luckily, once I was literally forced to read it, I enjoyed the book. But for the most part my reactions are worse to something that's been toted as the most brilliant movie/book/video game/tv show/band/song ever than something that someone has just told me I might like.
There have been three instances - technically two - where the crazy hype has lived up to the thing.
Harry Potter.
The Song of Fire and Ice series
Technically Babylon 5, though it was only one person hyping it to me.
Other than that I've found myself sorely let down. Neil Gaiman, Millenium, Naruto, BSG, Andre Norton, Dozens of Movies, Gerald's Game.... All of those massively hyped up to me, and the higher you're pumped the longer the fall.
So I do agree that too much hype - of any sort - can be damaging in the long run. If something is built up to be so amazing and so spectacular and so ultimate, people are going to expect that. And if it doesn't live up, they're generally going to have a less favorable reaction than if they'd just heard 'hey, I really liked this, this is good'. Because I honestly think I would have had different reactions to some of these things - Neil Gaiman, especially - if they hadn't been billed to me by so many people as the Best Thing Ever.
But then, I'm the person who also won't watch or read anything if I've been at all spoiled for it.
The Star Wars prequels. George Lucas went insane with building these things up and making them out to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, chocolate, and the machete. Now, if something is billed to be as being that great, I expect it to be that great. An entire world of movie going geeks were let down by George Lucas and his hype and his craptastic movies. The media built these movies up to be the alpha and omega of science fiction. Of course we're going to be let down by that!
But what's worse, for me, is not being let down by media hype, but by fanon hype. Because that's not some nameless, faceless PR company shoving it down your throat. That's not George Lucas waxing poetic about his creative vision, it's not Joss Whedon trumpeting that he's the ultimate fan and therefor his works are best, it's not Anne Rice detailing how her books are holy and therefor the ultimate in fiction. It's people I look at as being a lot like me, and therefor I'm more ready to trust them. Getting let down by that is worse. And for the most part, I do get let down - which is purely me, and my own particular tastes.
It's one of the reasons I put off reading the Harry Potter books for so long. I was worried about disappointment. Luckily, once I was literally forced to read it, I enjoyed the book. But for the most part my reactions are worse to something that's been toted as the most brilliant movie/book/video game/tv show/band/song ever than something that someone has just told me I might like.
There have been three instances - technically two - where the crazy hype has lived up to the thing.
Harry Potter.
The Song of Fire and Ice series
Technically Babylon 5, though it was only one person hyping it to me.
Other than that I've found myself sorely let down. Neil Gaiman, Millenium, Naruto, BSG, Andre Norton, Dozens of Movies, Gerald's Game.... All of those massively hyped up to me, and the higher you're pumped the longer the fall.
So I do agree that too much hype - of any sort - can be damaging in the long run. If something is built up to be so amazing and so spectacular and so ultimate, people are going to expect that. And if it doesn't live up, they're generally going to have a less favorable reaction than if they'd just heard 'hey, I really liked this, this is good'. Because I honestly think I would have had different reactions to some of these things - Neil Gaiman, especially - if they hadn't been billed to me by so many people as the Best Thing Ever.
But then, I'm the person who also won't watch or read anything if I've been at all spoiled for it.
