Honestly? I really couldn't care less if anyone...
...hates the very different art styles in the Greenwood's majors and minors,
...believes the Greenwood to be totally overrated,
...thinks the half-naked guy in the World Spirit's Ten of Pents seems like a child molester
...considers the World Spirit's Universe an ugly woman due to her size,
...calls the Druidcraft's people "hobbits" due their large feet,
...and finds Druidcraft altogether too large to shuffle,
...finds the Housewives Tarot superficial,
...thinks the Ironwing is way too crazy to read with,
...hates the Manara's style of depicting women,
...is convinced that erotic decks can only be used for relationship readings,
...finds the Fey's characters incredibly cheesy and too childlike,
...thinks that the Shining Tribe's art is awfully unprofessional,
...or hates anything else about a deck I personally happen to like.
Whenever I read such criticism of one of my favorite decks, I just shrug. Sometimes I feel mildly drawn to point out a blatant misconception (e.g. after 13 rounds of the RED exchange we can probably prove that erotic decks can indeed be used successfully for any sort of reading) but mostly I just don't bother.
Why should I care if other people think my taste in decks is wacky or assume I must be a superficial and non-serious reader due to the decks I like and choose to read with? If I can read successfully with what I pick and/or enjoy my decks in other ways, where's the issue? If a given tarot "in-crowd" looks down on me for taking the Manara or the Housewives seriously, or if anyone else thinks I must be nuts to have paid a lot of money for a Greenwood, what does that tell ME about THEM? It certainly does not tell me that they care about the quality of my readings or the way I treat the people I read for. It certainly DOES tell me, however, that they feel a need to appear superior to me, for whatever ego-/status-driven reasons. Well, are these the kinds of people whose judgments I should listen to because they have something valuable to teach? Probably not.
Likewise, I hardly ever feel drawn to state my opinion of decks I don't like, unless a) I'm specifically asked and feel qualified to do so (yes, for de-enabling purposes looking at six scans CAN be enough of a qualification, and yes, sometimes a vague memory of a deck still is a valuable opinion
among others), b) I have the strong impression that
someone needs to point out that even the most popular and/or the most "respectable" decks have their flaws (go on, ask me what I think of the Thoth or the Bohemian Gothic, both of which I own and have done readings with
).
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: negative opinions of decks are IMPORTANT and sometimes crucial in my decision to BUY any given deck. Even superficial criticism can add useful information to my general assessment of a deck. If someone criticizes the artwork of a deck, I need to ask myself if that's something I care for (personally, I have problems with getting distracted by non-deliberately odd anatomies so that may render a deck unreadable to me). If someone criticizes a deck's underlying belief system, I need to find out if that's important information to me (do I want to read with a deck with strong Christian or Satanic undertones if I feel barely any connection to that spiritual system?). If someone criticizes the structure of a deck, is that something that would influence the usefulness of a deck for me (does learning a new system sound exciting to me?)? If the criticism is NOT RELEVANT to the way I use my deck and/or the aesthetic expectations I have of them, there's no need to even listen to it.
Forgive me if this outburst seems overly emotional or in the wrong place, but I just don't GET why deck criticism is such a big issue all of a sudden (not in this thread, which I realize is meant to be light-hearted, but generally on the forum these days)...
