The Willingness to Embrace Joy in Things.

[Zaukrie]

What you appear to be asking for is to ignore any negative feelings you have about something with which you have a complex relationship, no matter your reasons, and...just be happy instead?

Not even close. Seriously.

 

[MGibster]

I'm not a fan of Harry Potter. I don't hate it, I just don't care about the series one way or another. A few years back I was in Orlando and went to Universal Studios and their Harry Potter land. It was pretty impressive and I enjoyed it even if I knew next to nothing about what I was looking at. I went to Disney World twice in 2000 (don't ask why I went twice). I enjoyed myself quite a bit both times. It was just fun to show, relax, and walk around looking at all the cool stuff.

 

[Older Beholder]

I can understand how going to Disneyland would lead to this epiphany.
I went to Tokyo Disneyland (and Tokyo SeaDisney the following day) about 8 years ago. The minute I walked through the gate I was like a 10 year old kid again.

This was one of the points being made in The Last Jedi…

It made me think that the people making 4 hour long YouTube videos dumping on the film at the time might have failed to grasp the idea.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Projecting your other stresses onto RPGs and the other fans probably isn't a constructive coping strategy.

Sure, but I also don't think that's what the OP is talking about given his examples, which seem more about people just holding themselves back because they think it's "embarrassing" to like something, or because they feel they need to recognise the illusionism rather than embracing it, or because they're being almost consciously cynical and preventing themselves enjoying something by essentially "being in their heads", rather than projecting anything.

Also, re: projecting stresses, I don't think that usually changes whether something is seen as flawed or not, at least in my experience, just sometimes (not always), how severe that flaw is seen as being. Further I think being angry and/or in pain rather than stressed or anxious is what tends to provoke the most negative reads of RPGs, of media, of theme park experiences, and so on (aside from a generally OTT writing style). I immediately think of a couple of times where people I know IRL had really like, shockingly negative takes on a movie that was like, uncontroversially good, and where it turned out both were really sick and in a lot of pain when they saw it, and rewatching it later had distinctly different experiences. Whereas being stressed - in my experience -tends to just drain any ability to enjoy something or even engage with it, so rather than having loud criticisms, you tend to have nothing. Unless the thing is so immersive it manages to make you forget your stresses and so on!

I think this is important to discuss because people are fairly routinely criticised in fandom and less routinely in life for failing to "embrace joy" or the like, and I genuinely think the reasons the OP presents, whilst real (I've seen them myself), are kind of in the "first world problems" zone of "failing to embrace joy". Perhaps cynicism is the worst of those by a fair margin, because that can be very hard to shake if it's deep to someone's persona.

 

[TwoSix]

I think there's a real problem in "fandom" where people like some shows from an IP feel they need to consume like, all of an IP's "content" (ugh), or they're "not a real fan" or something. When in fact you're so much better off just enjoying the bits you enjoy! I didn't watch Discovery Season 5 and nobody can make me! Hahaha! I can re-watch DS9 whenever I want! (um, at least currently - it sucks when you can't get a show or book or record or whatever you like because it's OOP and/or otherwise inaccessible).

At a very high level, I think it can be a problem with being attached to a “property” in general, as opposed to just being attached to the emotional moments that the property generated for you at a certain point in time.

You can have Star Wars be a transformative experience for you at 8 years old, and always carry love and affection for those movies, and yet not be a “Star Wars fan” that feels attacked if a loosely connected TV show 40 years later turns out to be mediocre.

 

[Zardnaar]

Some things I just don't get theme parks are one of them. They just seem to American. I also don't like crowds that much eg concert. I can go to one fine but doesn't really appeal along with the pot smell.

I do live in middle earth though so enjoy that. Basic hikes, beach, mountains.


Short video I live here.

Forest walks, swimming in rivers and lakes, botanic gardens are also fun.

I like greenery. In USA terms Appalachia and Carolinas look appealing.

Small mountains are right there, big ones are about 4 hours away.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

You can have Star Wars be a transformative experience for you at 8 years old, and always carry love and affection for those movies, and yet not be a “Star Wars fan” that feels attacked if a loosely connected TV show 40 years later turns out to be mediocre.

Yeah I think I'm more a "person who knows an unreasonable amount about Star Wars" than a "Star Wars fan" in a lot of ways, and thus whilst I enjoy SW things a lot, even when I have criticisms of them, they tend to be less severe and less emotion-centered. Like, Boba Fett was laughably terrible, but I clearly enjoyed it a lot more than many SW fans, judging by the thread here, where I was basically ending up having to "defend" it (lol) because some of the whimsy quite appealed to me (like the Mod double-meaning and the space-vespas), and Mando S3 was pretty bad but I kind of liked the weird Lizzo episode where some people were basically flipping tables with rage at this like "debasing" SW (as if! The Holiday Special existed, people!). And I genuinely had a great time with the Acolyte! Now there's some embracing joy!

Talking of which, I really, genuinely, enjoyed the hell out of both Avatar movies (at the cinema, 3D IMAX, to be clear - they're not amazing without that - I suspect the only home way to watch them similarly would be with a VR hat to make them 3D and good headphones), despite both nerd culture and mainstream culture trying to tell me they were bad and I shouldn't enjoy them.

 

[Velderan]

The local Renaissance Festival is that experience for me. We go every year, 2-3 times most years. It takes place from mid-August to late September, so you can expect it to be hot most days and it is very crowded so the lines for food and drinks are long. Being a fair, everything is overpriced. Sounds like a pretty miserable experience? And yet we go every year because I enjoy it quite a bit. When I'm there I don't think about how hot it is or how I'm going to spend a stupid amount of money on bottles of water because it's hot and dusty while magically also being muddy. I'm too caught up in the things I enjoy about it like watching artists create things, the different performers putting on their shows, and seeing the costumes people come up with. It's just a day where regardless of the things I might not like, I choose happy and fun.

 

[TwoSix]

Talking of which, I really, genuinely, enjoyed the hell out of both Avatar movies (at the cinema, 3D IMAX, to be clear - they're not amazing without that - I suspect the only home way to watch them similarly would be with a VR hat to make them 3D and good headphones), despite both nerd culture and mainstream culture trying to tell me they were bad and I shouldn't enjoy them.

Amen. The amount of crap I've taken for unabashedly loving both Avatar movies, even from people who are not generally overly critical, is astounding to me.

 

[borringman]

I embraced joy once. It was awful. Never again.