Judging Stories

When it comes to judging books and other media, we’ve grown used to doing it in a very binary way. When we judge a story, we judge it in absolutes — it’s either perfect or horrible. There is no nuance to it and nuance is what we would really need. If we’re fans of a story and someone dares to criticise it, we’re quick to fly at them to defend our perfect story. If we don’t like a story and someone dares to praise it, we’re just as quick to fly at them to teach them how horrid it is. Neither is really useful in the long run or will help us criticise stories properly. Therefore, this post is all about how to judge stories without being too judgemental about it.

When you look at a story in an objective way, you will find that every story has its weak points. There is something about every story which could be better. Stories are written by people and people are not perfect. In addition, the audience’s experience and taste plays a considerable role when it comes to judging the different parts of a story. A woman might judge a story differently from a man when it comes to sexism. A person of colour will have a different view of racism than a white person.
Most classic examples of literature have their problems. Sexism and racism are common in the classics because people had another opinion of the world then. For Stoker, the ideas that women are weaker than men (with the exception of Mina, who is also called out as an exception) and that foreigners aren’t as good as British people were normal. He wouldn’t have seen any problems with his way of portraying Lucy and the three vampire ladies (whom I refuse to call Dracula’s ‘brides’ as it’s not in the book), with Dracula himself as a foreigner, or the ‘quaint ways’ of the peasants Jonathan sees on the way to the castle (who know much more about the dangers than Jonathan does, by the way).
Don’t get me wrong here, though, I do not suggest that you never touch “Dracula” with a ten-foot pole in the future. It is a classic for a reason and I think more people should read the slow-burn novel instead of watching the movies and series which can’t really recreate the novel’s pace. I just suggest that when someone remarks upon problems with a story, there’s no need to viciously defend it. They might be right and there’s a good chance the story has a problem. That doesn’t mean you can’t love a story despite its problems.

The instinct to protect a story we really love comes from our own attachment to it. The story speaks out to us, it touches something within us.
Each and every one of us has a different life and gains different experiences. Those will influence how we judge a story. A woman who has been fighting sexism for a long time will have no patience with a story which is heavily relying on a sexist magic system or pushes all the female characters aside as weak and useless. A man might not have a problem with it at all, might not even see the problem because the men in this book are powerful and get a lot to do.
When the man then learns that some people don’t like the story because it is sexist, he might feel attacked because he likes the story and he is not sexist. That, however, is not what the criticism of the story is about. It’s not ‘if you like this book, you’re sexist,’ but ‘the book is sexist.’ There’s no need to be defensive, because the criticism is about the book, not about the reader. Nobody is saying ‘you are sexist because you like this book.’ They’re merely saying ‘this book is sexist.’ Which leads to the problem of judging a story in a binary way.

Nothing in this world, not even the colours black and white, is on a strict binary. Not even sex, despite what some people will still tell you. People don’t have clear-cut morals, we all have our little grey spots. What goes for people, also goes for media.
Calling a story ‘trash’ for having problems is not helpful, neither for the author (if they even read the critiques of their books) nor for the fans. Saying that a story has ‘problematic parts’ is much closer to the truth, because parts of it might not hold up to scrutiny. That sexist story mentioned above might have a sexist gendered magic system and keep female characters on the outskirts, but it can at the same time have great plots and engaging action.
In rare cases, a story might be horrible overall — even though even the most horrid stories still may have at least one or two aspects which are well-done. In most cases, a story simply is not perfect — nor does it have to be.

When criticising a book, it is important to look at all aspects of it. Some aspects might be bad, others will most likely be good.
When you criticise something, you need to look at the big picture. “Dracula” has sexist and racist undertones (and they’re quite strong at times), but it is also a book which manages to raise tension well and can interweave several plot-lines into a strong narrative. It has powerful scenes and manages to be very readable despite being written like a case file — made up of several different diaries, letters, and even a few newspaper articles. None of the good points excuses the bad ones, yet none of the bad ones destroys the good ones.
Keep in mind that your own view of a story will also influence your critique and listen to what others have to say. Don’t assume someone else’s critique is invalid just because they criticise something you liked or didn’t even notice. A man might not notice sexist themes in a story, simply because sexism plays less of a role in his life. That doesn’t mean he should just push a critique of sexism in that story from a woman aside. That critique might very well be valid. Just that you don’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Sometimes, you’re just not in a position to see it.

No matter how objective you try to be, your own opinion of the story, how much or how little it speaks out to you, will always influence your criticism, too. It might be easier to stay objective if the story doesn’t speak out to you that much, but a bad opinion will sneak into your critique as well. Try to stay balanced in a critique and cover both, the good and the bad. Try to stay objective while you do so and refrain from attacking someone, be it for liking or not liking the story you criticise.