critic (microfiction)

03.11.2025

S: Have you ever watched that film, I think it is called Birdman?

A: No. But I remember you talking about it once. That you were like Birdman.

S: In the film there is a critic. She is determined to destroy the hero.

A: Motivation?

S: His past. The fact that he plays the role of a superhero. She is against heroism.

A: Why?

S: She guards the gates of culture. She excludes. And again, it is the battle of the sexes. She attempts to crush the male ego.

A: We will have to watch it together. An artist must be against the critic that demands death.

A: The resolution?

S: Ambiguous. She calls for his death. A critic that  demands death. Can Birdman die for his art?

A: Why talk of this film?

S: Birdman has this voice. The voice of power. He is a hero. He has the voice of a hero. Is the film a meditation on this culture’s exclusion of the hero? A jealous culture that cannot stomach heroes and their heroism?

S: Yes, but the demand for the death of the hero persists. They ask for tragedy. We give them comedy. Comedy ends in marriage.