Overrated

[packbat]

My mom told me this story once. She was in an English class, Lit class, something like that - high school or college - and the teacher was talking about that "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" poem. Dreck, he said. Or didn't, probably; I don't remember Mom's words, and she might not remember his. Hers? I think his. Anyway, he went along

Comments

[explodingbat]

Truer words were never said. Art is something people do just because they think it's cool: critiquing it is pointless. I'm as much a fan of Banksy as i am of Escher, and just because the former has managed to earn ridiculous sums for his efforts does not make it deep or important or worthy of analysis.

I'm just glad there are people out there who feel the need to try and make something beautiful. Sometimes they even succeed.

[packbat]

I'm not sure I can agree. The world would be infinitely poorer if we could not strive for beauty, but there is value in the critique of art. It may not - really, should not - deter the artist to have their work critiqued, but critiques inform. However unreliable they are, they aid us in our creation.

[explodingbat]

To be honest it's not something i've given a lot of thought to. I might see a picture or sculpture and think it looks nice, or hear a tune and find it catchy, but it wouldn't occur to me to try and dissect the work to discover why. Most art reviews I read in the newspaper are pretty impenetrable, though I'm sure they're invaluable for more creative types of people.

I'd probably even disagree that beauty is something that needs to be striven for.. I'm not saying that doing so is worthless but it seems pretty clear that at least some aesthetic sense is hard-wired.

[packbat]

Hey, I don't know that much about it either. I just wanted to defend criticism as a legitimate response to art.

Cody doesn't listen to the radio

[anonymous]

And yet how do you account for the very real phenomenon of a song losing value after being overplayed?

Re: Cody doesn't listen to the radio

[packbat]

It takes time to test the worth of art. A superficial appeal may catapult an inferior piece into the limelight and nostalgia may even keep it there. It is not a perfect correlation in either direction, and too much should not be read into it. But, as Wordsworth said to the readers of his Lyrical Ballads:

One request I must make of my reader, which is, that in judging these poems he would decide by his own feelings genuinely, and not by reflection upon what will probably be the judgment of others. How common is it to hear a person say, I myself do not object to this style of composition, or this or that expression, but to such and such classes of people it will appear mean or ludicrous! This mode of criticism, so destructive of all sound unadulterated judgment, is almost universal: let the reader then abide, independently, by his own feelings, and, if he finds himself affected, let him not suffer such conjectures to interfere with his pleasure.