SPLICED MAGAZINE /
THE LAST WORD / REJECTING PERFECTION
ISSUE 02
Rejecting perfection
We are flawed, fallible creatures. What we create, therefore, will also be flawed. But
in the cracks of our creations lie the materials to improve: we utilise and build upon
our past mistakes. This is how progress is made.
by Tauriq Moosa
That’s why it should be a constant
annoyance when someone’s response to a
creative work – film, TV show, book, game –
is: “It’s not perfect”.
Of course not: nothing is.
We should expect imperfection since nothing
is perfect. But, more than this, we should be
wary and avoid claiming perfection.
First, we know perfection is impossible.
No matter how much you love anything,
it’s not perfect: it will always have flaws.
Even your greatest idol has a digestive
system (which is why you should avoid
having idols completely); even Breaking
Bad had its haters.
The point is, from a purely objective and
descriptive standard this claim is wrong.
Thus, we should reject perfection claims
because it’s factually incorrect.
Second, we should avoid perfection as a
standard since it disallows for improvement.
Why improve on what’s already perfect? By
defending something as perfect, we hinder
the creative process. We claim that anything
else will, by definition, be less.
If we know that anything made will always
be worse, what’s the point of investing, as
both audience and consumer?
This latter worries me most. We have a
remarkable capacity to deny fallibility in
favour of faultlessness. After all, no one
likes observing failure in ourselves or in
what we love.
But denial no more gets rid of fallibility than
180
a blanket gets rid of nails: it’s merely covered
and we’d feel the truth regardless.
Yet, this shouldn’t prevent us from loving.
Loving is not incompatible with recognising
fallibility. Think of human relationships:
What destroys them isn’t healthy honesty,
but blanketed denial of the situation.
Similarly, just because your favourite book,
film, game is “imperfect” should no more
lead to denying your love than realising it
was created by a woman or Egyptian.
Further, how stale would our creative
enterprises be were we to achieve
“perfection”! The whole creative enterprise
itself depends on our imperfection, our
grappling with our bizarre existence that
finds itself caught between the webs of
aspiration and the mandibles of reality.
We create for many reasons, but for many,
it is the opportunity to convey how the
world seems to us; to touch upon an aspect
of the world that we love, hate, scrutinise.
Sure: Not many are seeking answers to
the “human condition” in Mario’s digesting
mushrooms, but it’s a work of human
creation worth celebrating.
Remember: Someone decided this piece of
creation needed an audience: whether for
financial or artistic reasons (and the two
are hardly ever completely absent); we are
allowed to engage with it as representing a
new entity in the world. And, whatever else
we think, we can begin by recognising that
because it’s human-made, it is not perfect.
Perfection must be done away with. Thus, next
time someone says “Well, it’s not perfect…” say
“Good. We don’t want it to be.”