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You Die an Artist, or You Live Long Enough to Jump the Shark
Storytelling entropy, “Marvel-ization,” and the trad aesthetic
Recently I came across an amazing bit of film and TV criticism by Tom van der Linden, aka . His half-hour long video essay — — has racked up over two million views on YouTube, and after you’re finished reading this article I strongly suggest you check it out.
In this essay, I’m going to analyze an idea that van der Linden calls “storytelling entropy.” Then I’ll apply that analysis to some debates that have been churning in our culture for the last decade or so.
In particular, I want to explain why many conservative critics of contemporary film and TV franchises correctly note that these franchises have degenerated over time, but fail to diagnose why that’s happened. Their insistence that “wokeness” or DEI is ruining cinema is incorrect, or rather, it confuses the consequences of larger forces with their causes.
In reality, these franchises are spinning out of control under the force of storytelling entropy. They’re delivering content that’s less and less satisfying because it’s trying to satisfy audiences not through the power of the stories themselves, but by referencing content or…
