People are So Weird

Sometimes LDS culture is just too much for me. (Not the church. Just the way that people act in the church.) There is a ravenous desire for art, music, and literature that is cheesy in the extreme. When weighed in the scales, cutesy or cheesy will always outweigh quality. And I just don't understand it.

I realize that editing with software is part of any photographer's life. And I accept that. But this?

The colors and the sun rays are so obviously photoshopped that I just can't handle it. (Not to mention that in almost 9 years I've NEVER seen Provo look like that for the sunrise.) The point of editing is to fix things and make the picture look nice. Not to be melodramatic. 

I know, I know. It's not that bad. And kind of fun in that weird fantasy landscape kind of way. 

But definitely fake. 

And then you go and enter into a photography contest pretending like you're just that good at taking pictures. 

And it actually gets voted for. Over and over and over again. Because LDS people are SO predictable with their cultural preferences. 

I guess that might be why he did it. Dude knows his audience. 

But they really are so predictable. If it's a temple picture, throw in some fake sun rays or a couple of rainbows, and they are putty in your hands. 

And then there's this:

A romance novel about Abinadi. I kid you not. What it all comes down to is Book of Mormon fan-fic.

I have no problem with fan fics in general. Write them all you want. It's fun and amusing. But publishing them, I don't like. It just feels like cheating to me. Like all those thousands of Jane Austen spin-offs. If you want to be published, create your own characters, I say.

And scripture fan fiction is a whole 'nother level entirely.

Why? Why is this real?

And then we have Slathbog's Gold. 

I bought this book because it was on sale and the cover was awesome. Little did I know...

It very literally is a plagiarism of Tolkien's The Hobbit. Complete with magic wardrobe, boy who finds out he's a wizard, and the ever quarreling dwarf and elf who are best friends. And turning the troll to stone in the sunrise? Yup. Totally happened.

I finished reading it because I just had to see how many ways it was going to be un-original. 

And there are sequels. Two of them. Admittedly not as plagiarized as the first in terms of story line. But still very generic, not all that creative fantasy. With some severe problems. Things that any self-respecting editor would have caught on the first read through. 

This is what I mean about quality. For some weird reason, LDS people write, paint, compose, and publish stuff that would never, ever have gone anywhere in the rest of the world. 

And I just don't understand it. 

Don't even get me started on the number of terrible poems I've heard over the pulpit. Composed especially for their talk. *shudder*

Why should we shun quality? Why should we accept as good, things that are poorly made? It drives me absolutely up the wall. 

It's like LDS people don't even realize that it's crap. Like they don't understand the difference between well-painted and slapped together. It's not just a matter of accepting lower standards. They think they're getting quality stuff when they're not.  

And the worst part is that I can't even really explain myself adequately.

Every time I try, it just ends with me sounding judgmental. And other people getting offended. 

Maybe I just have weird quality standards. I don't know. But even if I don't like a story, I respect it if it's well done. And even if I love the story idea, I just despise everything about it if it's shoddy craftsmanship.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm wrong to want my portrait paintings to actually look like humans. *shrug*

Non-LDS example:

This.

                                  NOT this. 

Really, though. If anyone has any ideas, do feel free to share.