Justin Duke on film, writing, and consumption
Here is Buttondown CEO Justin Duke telling us why he writes about film so much. He says:
First: a rule I set for myself a few years ago was that if I was going to consume anything — any media at all — I would have to write myself a little book report at the end of it, to avoid consumption for consumption's sake.
This is a great habit. I don't follow it strictly (I'm fine simply watching episodes of, say, The Great British Baking Show without commenting on them), but I share the motivation. A few notes:
- It can be tough to do this with the classics. I just finished Othello and feel a bit silly adding to the piles that have already been written about it, even if I don't intend to share it. This is one of those feelings that's pretty easy to put aside as soon as I understand what I'm feeling.
- Even a single, thoughtful sentence can turn the experience from pure consumption into something more meaningful; here as elsewhere, avoiding zero outputs is much of the game.
- ...but these really should be complete sentences of one's formulation and not fragments, words, or bare quotations. (Ted Gioia is great on this subject.)
- I love reading art criticism from people who are not art critics.
- I've long believed that writers and podcasters too often refrain from publishing things that are outside their stated expertise. They often underestimate how much their readers and listeners connect with them, and not just their specific expertise. (And they also underestimate how easy it is for consumers simply to skip what they don't want.)
- One of Duke's essays has helped me think about why I love David Byrne and Talking Heads, yet spend fairly little time actually listening to Talking Heads. (But I, too, love Stop Making Sense, especially having read Byrne's How Music Works.)