The Perfect Score: Introduction

This is the introduction to a blog series I have been planning for a while explaining my 6 favorite franchises in fiction and why I like them so much. This blog will also be on the personal side.

I wish to explain what I prioritize in fiction. This is something I expect to be revealed over the series of the blog but there is one particular thing that leads to all others. It is something that is to me the very essence of enjoyability and goodness in fiction. It is something I expect on one hand you will probably relatable in some ways and on the other hand might find alien in other ways.

For as long as I remember, I have had the experience of something that it has to come knowledge others do not experience, an experience that I call “the unity” or the “continuity of being”.

What do I mean by that? I do not perceive the universe as being divided into a million tiny bits, into a series of unrelated events. To me the universe seems a singular whole, to which we are all tiny parts. Neither wholly physical nor wholly metaphysical, the universe is a beautiful ordered procession, with every event relating to each other at least distantly.

The Unity is comprised of all the many parallels and shared principles that run through the universe. The same law of gravity that governs the apple falling from the tree governs the motion of the celestial bodies. What a beautiful thing! The smaller reflects the greater, and the greater is a projection of the smaller. In the rising of the shining sun are all 4 fundamental forces unified. The fields of study of mankind need not be separated. Science, History, Religion, Philosophy, Psychology, and so forth….they are not separate realities, they are all part of one glorious reality. In versus debating I must confess to getting an odd glee at seeing a parallel or perfect counter between two characters developed in isolation, seeing the unity extend between two “realities”.

It is this, the Unity, that I want to see beyond all else. In trying to translate this to most people, this can be best understood to be “consistency”. And surely that is not so alien? It frustrates to see a character acting against what they are established to be like, to see a plot contradicted what has already happening? To me this principle extends beyond into the general realm of the atmosphere, that the atmosphere should remain constant. The themes should remain constant.  The fictional work is not a sequence of parts that should be divided, but a whole that should be united by a spirit that prevails throughout.

The things that I greatly dislike in fiction all stem from a lack of Unity. Things like filler that contributes nothing, aimlessness in spirit, randomness, and arbitrariness, they all cause disunity, a division of things, and a lack of parallels. That which is disunited, which sometimes is chosen specifically to not flow into all the rest creating the sense of disunity…it is legitimately annoying to me. Have you ever seen something that was mostly completed and just never was, and it left an empty hanging feeling? It’s like that…it’s a gap between two things that must mentally be closed or being left unsatisfactory.

It is that which I find all things I enjoy in fiction come from, the glorious unity that pervades our reality and which can pervade the reality of any writer should they write it as a unified whole and not a set of arbitrary parts without connection. All things taken together can build to a crescendo and not create a bunch of loud crashes and a chaotic cacophony.  

I must confess, when I found out that others don’t feel the Unity as I do, it drove me to tears. To me the Unity is such a beautiful thing, and it gives so much safety, so much hope, so much inspiration. Living in a world that seems to be a series of unrelated events must seem very scary and confusing. It drove me to try to always have sympathy and empathy of the people of this world, knowing that the world must seem far outside them, never feeling it beating in their heart. If you want you can dismiss all this as the overtly-romantic sentiments of the mind disposed towards poetry and hyperbole, but it is truly how I feel.

There seems to be a conception about me that I have very high standards for fiction, or indeed standards that are too high and I half agree. I am very good at finding both good things and bad things about something. Most people have a lot of works they find average, a good amount they find good or bad, and some they find amazing or terrible. For me it is the same, but the curve is just on a deeper slant then it is for most people both ways.

By this I mean to say that I have a very large amount of works I would give a 3/5, a much less amount I’d give a 4/5 and a 2/5 and very few I’d give a 1/5 and a 5/5. Most things to me are average neither rising above the general plain of fiction to prominence or falling to a valley of deserving criticism.

In my life there has been 6 franchises as a whole (as opposed to having an episode or chapter or whatever that hit 5/5) that have achieved the “perfect” score, a 5/5. It is an achievement that occurs maybe once per 100,000. Let me clarify that a “perfect” score does not indicate that I think the work is perfect. Everything has flaws. What a 5/5 means that it’s something I will happily view or talk about anytime I can, and that it has changed my life for the better. It’s something I view worthy of great praise and emulation. All 6 of these I think about regularly and they inform my decision making. I will also be listing the 5/5 moments (each of which is so good I could write a whole blog about that moment alone) and my favorite moment from each of them. That said I do care about average level of good over accumulated good over time, which I know in the art scene is a controversial question (whether it is more important to judge a work based on the quality parts it accumulates over its run, or it’s “average” level of quality”) If I convince just one person to try them, I will consider it well worth my time, even if I don’t, I will hope that the information about them and me may prove useful.