Hello there!
After months of absence (that I’m sure you all felt) and debating whether or not I should give up on this whole blogging thing, I decided to rebrand and give it another go (this time on WordPress, where it should have been all along, let’s be real).
Hence, Timothy Writes.
It’s a fitting name, don’t you think? My name is Timothy, and I’m writing about stuff! I actually started writing this post by hand because my MacBook had to update and is taking her sweet, sweet time, which makes the title all the more fitting – I am literally writing!
But enough with the stupid puns. What am I going to write about?
Well, as the byline (subtitle? Edit: the correct term is “tagline.” #TheMoreYouKnow) says, I’m going to write about movies and TV and other such things. Which sounds incredibly unfocused and amorphous, but I promise you it will be neither. Trust me. Lack of focus is what landed me in my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad creative drought in the first place.
Ehh, that’s not entirely true. Uncertainty of focus is what caused my online identity crisis.
My last post before I vanished was my review of the new Ghostbusters movie (spoiler alert: I loved it a lot), but I was quickly bogged down by the Culture War ™ surrounding the film, and just about every other nerdy thing that came out in the latter half of the summer – especially DC movies.
Already experiencing superhero/comic book movie fatigue, I was not mentally or emotionally prepared to deal with the collective outrage (from both camps) about Suicide Squad and DC’s bigger movie-verse. I thought about jumping in and offering my two cents, but, at the end of the day, I didn’t feel my fucks were good (or formed) enough to dole out.
So I tapped out. I walked away. I let the Internet do its thing while I reassessed what I really wanted to do.
And I really want to write.
Specifically, I want to write about the things I love – the things I appreciate and enjoy – not what everyone else expects me to.
I want to spread the Good News of Pop Culture ™ without adding to the clamoring cynicism and jaded noise. There’s too much fanaticism out there already. But that doesn’t mean I’m throwing criticism out the window, and I think that’s the biggest realization I’ve had during my blogging sabbatical.
Contrary to popular belief, you can enjoy something and be critical of it – whether it’s a movie or a TV show or a video game or a piece of literature. As fans, we don’t have to divorce enjoyment and critical thinking. Truth be told, I really can’t. I’m always dissecting and digesting the media and art I consume. I have a hard time taking something at face value and measuring just the surface level, which is why I wax poetic about movies filled with grunts and screams in the vacuum of space.
It’s easy – so easy – to fall into the self-gratifying pit of fandom, where we (the fans) demand that they (the creators) cater to what we want to see. I see people do this far too often, and they don’t even appreciate (or even acknowledge) what they’ve been given. They just make a snap judgment of “I like this” or “I hate this” without digging deeper to find the why.
I’ve been guilty of this in my past reviews – my fairly damning review of Pixar’s Brave comes to mind – and I think it’s ultimately an unhealthy way to engage with the end products of hundreds, if not thousands of hours of creative work. We are all creators in our own, unique ways – we should at least give each other the space to breathe and form our own creations.
If you don’t like it, don’t watch it, buy it, read it, etc. That’s your choice, and I respect that choice. But, from a critical standpoint, let’s not knock something because it’s not what we wanted or expected. I think we need to do a better job of grading the work for what it is – talk about what does or doesn’t work, examine what’s uplifting or problematic. And then move forward to better things.
This is what I plan to do here. I want to write about the things I love and the things I’m interested in, while talking about their strengths and observing their weaknesses.
I don’t think this makes me any different or better than the other bloggers out there. At the end of the day, I really just want to share my thoughts with you, with the hope that you’ll think the things I love are as rad as I do.
And I really am going to write about everything. I’ve got a list of content ideas that includes TV shows, movies (both old and new), video games, books, and even concerts! I’m gonna shoot for weekly posts, but we’ll see how it goes.
Also, I’m really hoping the book review portion will motivate me to read more, because, as a writer, I really do not read enough. It’s a problem that I’m openly admitting here, so I need y’all to hold my feet to the fire and get me reading again.
No, seriously, I need your help.