Bright Star

[bimo]

I woke up this morning with the idea of writing a lengthier entry on Jane Campion's Keats movie Bright Star (For the interested: the last three years of John Keats' life, seen through the lens of his relationship with Fanny Brawne; a movie typical of Jane Campion as a director insofar as Bright Star's superb visuals, added by a strong focus on the

Comments

[joyful_molly]

"I think you should expect your readers to have absolutely ZERO cultural literacy"

I find this neither pragmatist nor sensible, but rather insulting.

You know, I wonder if this is not the fear of writers that their readers could think they are "elitist" or that they sound pretentious for knowing something their readers maybe don't. I love finding new things in the fics I read, and if I don't know something - research and: yippieh! SOMETHING NEW!

In my opinion, keeping the level of writing at the least common denominator is the wrong way to go.

[bimo]

"Least common denominator" really nails it, doesn't it? *sigh*

I suspect that attitudes like the one expressed in the post you've cited are mostly the result of fandom's self-perception/self-idealization/self-delusion of being per default an all-tolerant and non-excluding global community with just the right niche for absolutely anybody. The second you publicly express the idea of certain minimum standards of knowledge, regardless how relatively low these standards might be, is also the second you exclude and thus violate one of most basic and crucial community rules.

Also, at least for a certain percentage of authors, popularity might be a factor as well, in which case a comparatively easy accessibility of the produced texts would definitely be a major plus point, guaranteeing a larger audience.

Personally, I've often found that the authors whose stories I truly enjoy are exactly the authors who are treating their readers as their equals.

[bimo]

The IMDB lists September 2009 as the official release date for Canada, so the film probably already has disappeared from most Canadian theatres. However, according to Amazon.com, the date of the US DVD release is January, the 26th :-)

[diotimah]

Good to hear you enjoyed Bright Star. I *love* that movie - it's one of the best recent biopics, in my opinion. Particularly because it doesn't claim to be an 'authentic' depiction of the relationship between John Keats and Fanny Brawne, but is told entirely from Fanny's perspective. And it's well-acted and wonderfully atmospheric.:-)