Okay, I have been having an argument on YouTube with a bunch of people about this comment I made on a video where they analyzed “The Shining” for a theory called The Wendy Theory. I watched one minute of the video and then stopped wrote my comment which is my opinion backed up by an apparently old school education and then went on with my life.
The comment was on the fact that in the creators stated research list for the video he did not list the book for which the movie was inspired. I said that the fact that he didn’t read the book makes the rest of his analysis invalid since the book is the source material for which the movie came from. All these people, not the creator mind you, came forward to defend the video. Telling me that the book has nothing to do with the movie, that Stephen King disavowed the movie since it deviated from the book so much, etc. Not one of their so called arguments is actually valid to my point.
When I went through middle school and high school I was taught how to research for different types of things from papers, to debates, and finally to be able to defend a scientific hypothesis or analysis. The first rule of research for any of these is to READ THE SOURCE MATERIALS. If you don’t make sure that the research you are basing all of your analysis on is as thorough as possible then anyone can come along to topple your tower because the keystone is missing.
I don’t care if later on Stephen King disavowed the movie. Stanley Kubrick himself stated that the movie was inspired by the book. It shares a lot of the same main story elements up to and including the characters and their motivations.
If you are analyzing something that is inspired by something else and sharing that with the public then you should be able to proudly state that you made sure to read/watch what inspired it as part of your thorough research and also be able to publish a bibliography so that others can do and see the evidence of your argument. Though the bibliography isn’t always necessary especially when it comes to visual media.
To me this video that everyone is harping on me about is trash. It is on par with people who have only watched the Harry Potter movies and then they trying to analyze the storyline and such. If you haven’t read the books then you are missing HUGE pieces of things that were left out or out right changed for the films. The movies by the fourth one especially deviate sometimes drastically from the books they were inspired by.
My final message to all those who where criticizing me was to state that either I was being trolled, which is a distinct possibility, or the people that were arguing with me have almost no education in how to research and analyze anything properly.
I don’t like intellectual laziness. It is my opinion that it is unfortunately becoming more and more common from what I can tell.
Derek's Mindscape 