What are we looking for?

I belong to a Facebook group made up of people who are also interested in koryu budo. Several times a day, someone links to a video of a demonstration of some ryuha or other (by agreement, videos of classes not approved by the instructor are forbidden and taken down, as are shameless promotions). "WTF Wednesday" showcases odd or bogus or just plain funny videos.

I should say that my job blocks YouTube, which means that, unless I am truly at leisure (which doesn't happen much), I don't watch anything - neither the good, interesting or rare video, nor the silly Wednesday fare. Stuff on FB is buried in a matter of hours, so even if I am really interested in something, by the time I get home, I will have a hell of a time finding it anyway.

It was not always thus. Long ago, before the heyday of Web video, several of my colleagues and I used to trade around "bad budo" video on tapes, and later, dvds. When we would get together, we would watch some of this stuff and laugh our butts off. Back when there were also real fora, such as paper journals, for which I would write reviews, I realized I could not review videos, for the most part, even when asked. Copyright issues really upset me - commercially released videos often violated copyright rules, such as including music used without permission. One even included film clips of dramatic fight scenes lifted from Japanese chambara movies. Not wishing to either criticize or support minor criminal acts of copyright infringement, I refused to review videos altogether. I believe in the above case I actually wrote to the Japanese film distributor to alert them to the infringement. As a writer, I was unnerved by the amount of pirated material, which generally had nothing to do with techniques or history of the ryuha which was the purported subject of the video.

Being theatrically trained and having done some film work, I was also frequently annoyed by the production values (and I am using the term loosely). One person shot his video in what looked like his living room, festooned with souvenirs from Japan. Another video, a double-set of a seminar, was not bad. I actually published a review of this one, but had to point out that the background clutter of jackets and equipment bags scattered around the space was distracting, and that, surely, if this video was being offered for sale, the least the producer could have done was hire a director.

So it's not just that I don't have much time for video clips, I don't have much interest, even in the good ones. Since everyone else finds them so entertaining, however, I have started wondering, about both my lack of interest, and why everyone else is so interested. What are we looking for; or, in my individual case, why don't I care?

And, having written that, I can't say what motivates people to watch videos generally, except to assume it is for the same reasons that everyone watches everything - something that moves attracts our attention, and we are both bored and curious at the same time; like cows who stare at everything that does not have to do with themselves, or drivers who slow down when passing the scene of an accident. I actually do not slow down, unless I have no choice in the matter. I saw enough driver's ed videos of ghastly car wrecks, so I've decided I can live without the sight, unless I actually have to stop to offer first aid.

With regard to budo videos, however, a distinction should probably be made between people watching videos for instruction in their style, rare video that has some historical significance, and stuff that is only for entertainment. I take notes from videos that depict techniques I'm working on and then tend to work off the notes. I am interested in rare or old video if it has to do with my own style; for example films of Nakayama Hakudo or other teachers of Muso Shinden Ryu. Given my lack of leisure time, other historic footage will probably have to wait until I retire, by which time we will probably be able to have it wired directly to our brains, Total Recall style.

As for the goofy videos of amateurs performing made up techniques, I got over being entertained by them. Now, they either annoy or depress me. In picking apart the reasons why, one big one is that some of the fakers seem so confident that they know what they're doing, when they clearly have very little real understanding. I am not interested in hooting over someone's lack of actual expertise, nor can I excuse it, as a commenter in the group once contended after a pretty egregious posting of made up stuff provoked a tide of snark. People who misrepresent their practice cause damage that should not be excused as "self expression." They can be free to express themselves until they start deceiving others into believing the practice dates to hoary antiquity (hint -nobody's practice does that).

So, to get back to my original question, what are we looking for? When I look at videos, I am looking for knowledge. I am looking for expertise. I am not looking to feel smugly superior to someone spouting some made-up stuff about "the deadly art of the samurai," or similarly themed nonsense. As a practical matter, I am a small person. Being a small person means you are respectful of large people, even if you don't like it. Snarking about someone else's ineptitude is frankly a waste of time. After all, it's not like I am going to track down some self-taught poseur and offer to enlighten him with my "authentic" technique. As for entertainment, I'll look to renting a chambara film any day of the week.