12th Archivist
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EDIT: I suppose I could be a little less vague. This isn't the story mentioned, but it works just the same.

I really enjoy Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle. In fact, it's one of my favorite book series. I love the story and characters and setting and so on. (And yes, I actually do like the series.) And yet, plenty of ordinaries and professionals alike criticize those very aspects. They say it has a trite plot, bland characters, pointless scenes, and so on. This then makes me feel badly about myself. If I like something that's apparently terrible, does that make me terrible?

My best guess is that it's a bit of fremdschaemen, except I feel personally criticized instead of personally embarrassed. Is there an English phrase for this effect?

(I should mention that this "shame" or whathaveyou is really quite minor. I don't think about this sort of thing very often, and when I do, it passes quickly.)

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[Last edited by 12th Archivist at 11-16-2014 04:27 AM]

The spitemaster
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I don't know of a phrase in English that would cover that, most of English does not cover specific phraseology like that in my opinion.

However, I do have a opinion on Paolini's series. I think that his first two books are significantly different from the second two books in the series, and I like the first two better because of it. After the first two came out the books became quite popular and started attracting lots of attention. I feel that the negative press affected Paolini in such a way that he tried to differentiate he work from his main contractor: mainly that the plot of his book mirrored Star Wars. Seeing as it appeared from the lead of Obi wan died after imparting knowledge to Luke and a "I am your father" moment the criticism was strong and in my opinion rightly deserved. Paolini then tried to change his work enough to shut the criticism down. In doing so, he removed large parts of the foreshadowing that he was building.

And reading your post again, I'm not really sure you are actually invested in Paolini or if you used it as an example.

So yeah...

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I met a man that wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
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bdwing
Level: Master Delver
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It sounds to me like a guilty pleasure.

definition from Google(?):
guilt·y pleas·ure

noun

noun: guilty pleasure; plural noun: guilty pleasures

something, such as a movie, television program, or piece of music, that one enjoys despite feeling that it is not generally held in high regard.


____________________________
In the words of Cyndi Lauper:

"Until it ends, there is no end."

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[Last edited by bdwing at 11-21-2014 07:30 AM]