Zarathustra wrote:...And I think we all know that Donaldson has elevated the fantasy genre to Art.
But there are lots of things that are Art that people can still say, "You know, that's not my thing." Art doesn't automatically mean Objectively Good to Every Human--You Must Agree Or You're Uneducated. People are still allowed (in most places) to have differing opinions on various works of art. I would even be so bold as to claim that Art is subjective, both in evaluating its quality and in choosing its definition.
MJB, I thought your post was well-written, funny, and worth reading. Don't let unfriendliness or judgmental attitudes scare you off or keep you from posting your opinions.
I could not agree more with all of the above and IMO Z, there's nothing "bold" in your assertion I put in italics above. A reaction evoked in an individual by Art is necessarily and inevitably subjective precisely because it's personal... indeed, how could it be anything other than subjective?
MJB, loving your "I own the only valid palantir to gaze upon SRD" line. That was a true laugh out loud moment and could not have hit the nail more squarely on the head. Sadly, it'll go straight over the heads of those who are flagrantly fervid and fanatical, or mistakenly manic and messianic (gee, alliteration...), since they'll always believe that they and only they are "the way and the truth and the life" and that "no man cometh to SRD except through them". Anyone else detecting traces of a Jesus complex here?
I also entirely agree that if one finds nothing whatsoever to critique in a work of art, then one must be blinded by unrealistic adulation. Are we really to believe that TLD has reached the unsurpassable heights of some Platonic ideal of literature? Oh please... that's fanboi-ism taken to a laughable extreme.
As I keep repeating in these types of threads, obviously the only reasoned and mature thing to do is to acknowledge the truth within the exhortation vive la différence... not that this recommendation ever changes the self-important self-righteousness of those hell-bent upon avowing the existence of the Emperor's new clothes.
The massive amount of unwitting self-irony variously present in the above quote is quite literally staggering... self-awareness, anyone?lurch wrote:To bad the self appointed egos didn't take the hint and bone up on what makes Literature, Art. Hey, you got the rest of your life. There is plenty of time.