Excellence, and the rest of it
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You know, I think the concept of Excellence is getting lost. I think people used to understand what it meant. It meant to be of the highest quality. It was usually marked by the best workmanship or design or idea or execution. It was to be admired. It was something to strive for.
In the modern era, I believe the desire for Fame has taken the place of the quest for excellence. I’m not even sure most of us recognize the difference between excellence and popularity anymore.
The good news is that I believe we know excellence when we see it. It’s just that we don’t see it often. And I believe we all know what garbage is. The problem is the middle ground… ubiquitous mediocrity. When the sub-par becomes commonplace, it becomes easier to accept, and more difficult to differentiate.
A friend of mine once told me that TV is where good ideas go to die and where mediocrity goes to self-congratulate. Amen, sister. I’ve got to think that TV in general and the popular culture overall are feeding into a loss of excellence. Because although mediocre films are still being made, they are also being granted the highest artistic achievement awards we give out. Look at your favorite Award Show Whipping Boy. Seriously? Is this the best we can do with all our incredible talent and high-tech toys? And does something deserve to win Best of Show simply because it was the best Mediocrity of all the other Mediocrities? As they said in The Incredibles, when everyone’s special, no one will be.
Play this little game: watch the news on any given night. Note how many news stories focus on celebrities. Now, for each celebrity, think: why exactly is this person famous? What did he/she do? Did they create something, achieve some Artistic high water mark, set the quality bar for their profession? Or did they win a game show? Or get born into a famous and/or rich family? Or did they die unexpectedly?
But this is also where you come in. As an aspiring artist, can you hold your work to the highest quality bar, push the envelope, and try to do just a little bit more than mediocre? As an animation fan, can you demand more entertainment in your entertainment? Can we all expect - and seek out - excellence?
If AnimWatch can stand for one thing, I hope it can stand for the overall excellence of the films we profile. I believe I have let a couple of clunkers slip through - films that looked good before they were finished. And I’m trying to fix that problem as I go. But overall, I’d like to think my instincts were solid, and hopefully will get better as I include more films.
And I hope you will help me as we go along. Call me on it when I slip.
March 7th, 2007 at 8:50 am e
I couldn’t agree more….although I think its hard to define excellence. I think there is personal excellence (striving for perfection within one’s own skill set) and then there’s global excellence (the general opinion of the majority). So while we shouldn’t celebrate the best of a bad bunch for celebrations sake, maybe there’s always room for celebrating one’s passion for their work, whatever the quality.
April 4th, 2007 at 10:48 pm e
I certainly agree that the pursuit of excellence is being trampled by the acceptance and praise of mediocrity. I would even suggest that Nigel’s politically correct comment about each person having their own level of excellence negates the truly exceptional. Yes we are all on a continum of development and we may even have attained an extremely high plateau on that continum, but our high plateau may be a canyon relative to true excellence. Instead we seem bound to the lowest common denominator, striving for a pseudo equality by granting awards to everyone (perhaps in fear of hurting feelings, wounding egos, or simply being honest).
I’m not in animation, I’m a surgical nurse and I am aware of the bastardization of excellence on a regular basis. We (nurses) are regarded “equally”…a 3% raise annually regardless of excellent, mediocre, or sub par performance. The ongoing coddling of the sub par and mediocre exists across many professions and within American culture in general (as you have indicated regarding media and film). I keep searching for solutions. I truly believe that we must always seek to become better; “unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow” (this was on a poster at a bank, and I couldn’t agree more).
Who will we become as a people when our only idols and inspirations are rockstars, athletes, and movie stars? I think our prioities and moral codes have been marginalized by “popularity” and financial gain (the “reality” shows I’ve endured indicate a human drive for cash over basic human decency and respect). Is there hope for us?
April 5th, 2007 at 7:17 am e
It may not make entertaining blog fare to say it, but I agree with you. And I do worry about the future when I see a watering down.
For an exaggerated view of where I fear this may all be heading, I’d suggest you watch Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, where in the future, the most popular show on television is called “Ow, My Balls!”
OK, so it’s not exaggerated that much. And I don’t think it’ll take the 500 years the movie suggests. At this rate, I think we’ll be there in 50.
But not to be too negative, there is still plenty of excellence out there. You just have to strive for it yourself, and seek it out in others. Reward it, encourage it, nurture it.
Thank you for your very well reasoned and excellently written note. Thanks for weighing in.
April 5th, 2007 at 8:51 pm e
Thank you for the food for thought, and good luck with your podcast/ blog. I’ll check in for future episodes.
April 5th, 2007 at 9:20 pm e
This is just an afterthought but maybe 50 years is to far into the future for “Ow, My Balls!”. I don’t know the nature of the show in Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, but “Jackass” can’t be to far off the mark. Thanks again.
April 6th, 2007 at 4:29 am e
Yeah, Jackass isn’t too far off the mark, but OMB has less narrative, if you can imagine. Just a series of mishaps with a guy falling on various things and hitting his crotch. Ah. I’m sure Jackass was the model or at least the inspiration.
For a glimpse of OMB, you should check this out:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CNR8d7KqozY
Idiocracy is really a very funny, but very scary movie. It would be easy to dismiss it as the very thing it criticizes, but such is the danger of satire. In truth, the first 45 minutes is the best portion, and the end sort of degenerates into a fairly typical movie. But the things the movie has to say about the dimming of general intelligence, and the influence of Corporations that low intelligence tolerates, is more than worth the price of admission.
April 6th, 2007 at 8:17 pm e
Thanks for the link…maybe another 25 years. I’ll check out Idiocracy.
What is “AnimWatch” all about anyway?
April 7th, 2007 at 3:59 am e
AnimWatch is a website I run, dedicated to excellence in independent animation. If you like good stuff, I encourage you to check it out:
http://www.animwatch.com
Hope to see you there!