![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
All creative artists need an editor
Oct. 5th, 2025 03:03 pmI finally got around to watching (most of) the movie Inglourious Basterds. Afterwards, I was struck by something. All creative artists need an editor, including (especially) Quentin Tarantino.
I'm sure that somewhere somebody is successfully creating art that they don't like, but 99.999% of artists create (write, paint, direct movies) art that they like. We spend entirely too much time making and remaking the art to do stuff we don't like.
The problem arises when one goes to submit that art to the world. It's very easy to get so engrossed in what YOU like that you forget what other people would like. In the specific case of Inglourious Basterds, several scenes, such as the one in the bar, went way too long. A proper editor would have cut the hell out of it.
There's a term in writing criticism for this - Squid in the mouth. This is "The failure of an writer to realize that his/her own weird assumptions and personal in-jokes are simply not shared by the world-at-large. Instead of applauding the wit or insight of the writer's remarks, the world-at-large will stare in vague shock and alarm at such a writer, as if he or she had a live squid in the mouth."
I'm sure that somewhere somebody is successfully creating art that they don't like, but 99.999% of artists create (write, paint, direct movies) art that they like. We spend entirely too much time making and remaking the art to do stuff we don't like.
The problem arises when one goes to submit that art to the world. It's very easy to get so engrossed in what YOU like that you forget what other people would like. In the specific case of Inglourious Basterds, several scenes, such as the one in the bar, went way too long. A proper editor would have cut the hell out of it.
There's a term in writing criticism for this - Squid in the mouth. This is "The failure of an writer to realize that his/her own weird assumptions and personal in-jokes are simply not shared by the world-at-large. Instead of applauding the wit or insight of the writer's remarks, the world-at-large will stare in vague shock and alarm at such a writer, as if he or she had a live squid in the mouth."
