"Entitled to Your Educated Opinion...."

I believe it was Harlan Ellison--and someone is sure to correct me if I'm wrong--who said, "Everyone is not entitled to his opinion; rather , everyone is entitled to his educated opinion." (It might be "informed" rather than "educated", but the point's the same.

An interesting discussion on this point is currently going on on comicon.com in a thread entitled, "OK for pros to bash fans on Comicon?".

The gist is summed up in these postings:

matchesmalone

Now that we've exhausted the wit of Bernard "You Work at McDonald's" Chang, here's the wisdom (from one of his replies to me):

"if you have to ask a question like: '...how does one both pencil and ink in the digital environment?' - should you really be commenting about art in general?

So how about it fans and pros alike, do you have a right to an opinion about "art in general" if you don't know how to both pencil and ink in the digital environment? Should only professional comics artists be entitled to have opinions about the work of professional comics artists? Should only friends of Tommy Lee Edwards be able to make (supportive) comments about Tommy Lee Edwards?

X-Treme12345

Originally posted by matchesmalone:
So how about it fans and pros alike, do you have a right to an opinion about "art in general" if you don't know how to both pencil and ink in the digital environment?

I thought this was pretty interesting, but it got lost in the middle of Matches' pledge for Internet Martyrdom™ He may have had a history of obnoxiousness in this case to warrant a reply like that, but I have seen quite a few pros replying to fan's criticisms basically with "shut up, you are not a writer/artist and don't know how to write/draw."

BATFAN

Originally posted by matchesmalone:
So how about it fans and pros alike, do you have a right to an opinion about "art in general" if you don't know how to both pencil and ink in the digital environment?

One does not need to know about the ins and outs of comic book art or writing to talk about it, but if you want to have an educated discussion about the subject then it's best if you know about the subject so that you wont look like a jackass in the end.

David Porta

You don't have to know anything about entertainment to know what you like and dislike and why.

In general, I agree that intimate knowledge of a medium is not required for stating an opinion as to whether you liked it...but if you're going to go into depth about why, I think it's best if you can speak with some knowledge, if not authority, about how these kinds of works are created, the challenges faced and met, the standards a professional is expected to meet, etc.

I'd never, for example, speak about musical composition beyond the typical American Bandstand "It's got a good beat, you can dance to it, I give it an 85," because I simply don't know enough about music--other than occasionally performing on an amateur level--to speak knowledgeably about it. But I think I've been around comics long enough--30 years or so, including some time attempting to submit proposals--to opine with some expertise.

Your thoughts?