Can someone explain this to me?

[laconicsax]

I've never understood the 'yeah? well let's see you do better!' response to criticism, especially with music and literature. I've seen top-notch professionals give some really boring performances playing exceptionally boring music and whenever I remark on how boring the performance or music was, I'm attacked with fiery-eyed vitriol and a variation of 'so you think you can do better?'

Does anyone actually think that 'so you think you can do better?'/'well let's see you do better!' is anything more than a meaningless statement of anger?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear laconicsax...

They say it because they feel challenged, and they want to blow that back at the challenger...

That's my take on it.

And yeah, they're angry too.

:hi:

[begin_within]

2. No

Criticism can hurt one's feelings, some people take it as a criticism of themselves rather than the work. You never know how they will react. The natural response to being hurt is anger. So that statement is a reflection of the anger, directed at you, because you are the one that made the criticism. That's all it is.

[laconicsax]

4. The people responding aren't ever the originators of the work.

If I don't like someone's performance, I just don't say anything about it to them unless they directly ask me for honest criticism. It's always other audience members who get all pissy that I didn't like the performance we just saw.

[Deep13]

3. Well, it's an ad hominem attack...

...that diverts attention away from what you are talking about to you. It says nothing about the merits of your argument.

[laconicsax]

5. That's what I thought.

I've just gotten it a few times in the last week and it's starting to bug me--especially when it's colleagues who start acting like I raped their children because I thought ill of a performance they had nothing to do with.