So like…idk I’m not sure how to explain this.
I can enjoy art, and I can appreciate and respect art. But like…I don’t know how to enjoy things “abstractly” per se?
What i mean is that I like reading and movies and paintings and such. But I can’t enjoy “classics” per se. Nor can I enjoy Avant-garde art. But I can respect both. I want to enjoy both too. I’ve tried reading both Le Miserables and dream of the red chamber but both times ive put them down fairly quickly (although the dream of the red chamber book I was reading was a fairly old translation, so maybe that was it). Ive also tried reading some poems out of Vladimir Mayakovsky’s “the backbone flute” but they havent ellicted and reaction from me. And I really, really respect avant-garde work. I would rather someone like Yoko Ono be successful over Blake Shelton, because Blake Shelton makes the most generic crap, while Yoko Ono actually tries to make things different and interesting.
But I kinda would rather listen to Blake Shelton (obviously if I have broader choice I’m picking someone like Woody Gunthrie or Phil Ochs, but if it was between Shelton and Ono, it’d be a tough choice).
So I guess my main question is how do people enjoy art in the “abstract” way (again, I know that’s not a good term but idk what else to call it)? Because I see critics and such wax lyrically about this stuff and they seem to really enjoy it so I wanna enjoy art like that too, beyond “oh it’s pretty” or “oh its fun.”
I think one thing about “classics” is that they’re just classics for their culture. You should look for art that somehow ties to your own history. One of the best experiences I had was reading “Vidas Secas”, which is a book that ties very well a lot of common themes for my family and community but also our local dialect that’s slowly being erased by the internet.
I can’t really recommend you anything, but I can’t see why the story of Les Miserables, however well written, might touch a good portion of the world population.
I also really enjoy taking note of the many ways some video games portray their themes besides dialogue and text. Things like camera framing, colour coding, ludonarrative, music all driving the same point forward. It’s about both appreciating the emotions that something makes me feel and also the techniques employed to make me feel that. And a great contrast is things like a bad TV series that’s supposed to be tense but it ends up just funny.
I guess that the first step is to start seeing art as something normal and not as a mystical expression of the human soul that is manifested through ART™ or whatever they’re saying now to define true or false ART™. At least for me art is just a consequence of technique—that’s the etymology from ancient greek, and in my language there are non-artistic™ words that contain art in them—, and this technique can be studied, analyzed, criticized, and of course enjoyed. But is this technique just Fine Technique? Is there an Amateur and a Professional Technique? Art itself, whether it’s a masterpiece or pure garbage, is just the consequence of techniques.
Then here comes two things that I disagree with in your post: the classics™ and proper names. Regarding the classics there’s an obvious eurocentrism in defining not only the correct techniques for making art but also what is beautiful or ugly. How convenient for the west, they decided that western art is the most elevated form of it! This becomes evident when you live in the periphery, where our culture is labeled popular, ancient, and other euphemisms for exotic.
Regarding proper names there’s a mistake in considering a creation as the consequence of an atomized individual and their isolated mind: not only are the creation and distribution affected by the environment, but the conceptualization itself is too, because the person cannot be separated from their context.
It’s interesting how if an artist sucks—meaning: their techniques and the result suck—people recommend they acquire more knowledge and practice. But if an artist creates a masterpiece, this “genius” is crystallized and detached not only from their environment but even from history, like some mythical being who transcends humanity.
Soooo, I guess the first step is to start seeing art as something normal—without the european academia or the yankee marketing. Start doing, even if your technique sucks, can help you to see things differently: suddenly a painting isn’t just colors but lights and shadows because you understand how they work, or the paint feels different depending on whether it’s on paper, wood, or whatever.
But with my perspective of art as a consequence of technique then the local gastronomy and the national gallery exist on the same level. And by studying those techniques I can engage with and understand those creations.
Mm, I think this is fair
One small thing I want to respond to, it wasn’t just european classics. Dream of the Red Chamber is a Chinese classic (one of the classic novels). And now thinking about it I’ve also read Natsume Soseki’s kokoro. Although I think that too I had issues with the more subliminal/metaphorical messaging in that book, even though I enjoyed it quite a lot. What I’m saying is that I wasnt just trying to read the western classics. But western classics should have some merit to them, as for example Xi Jinping has credited Faust as one of the many books he has read and enjoyed in his life. But of course I’ll diversify as much as I can (that I can find in languages I can actually read).
You’re very correct in what you say about artistic geniuses and what not. This isn’t even just the case in art. For example, Nobel prize winner Richard Feynmann (probably misspelling that) was genuinely a good physicist and science communicator. But he had this myth built up around him and his personality, where he made being a physicist look easy and like you should always be the smartest and most confident person in the world, and that you shouldn’t care what the world thinks of you. But after he died, they pulled out boxes upon boxes of research and papers and such that he used and studied because being a physicist is genuinely very hard work, which you aren’t gifted with overnight.
Exposure is a big part of it. People like the music that is playing when they are having a good time. People like the paintings that they choose to hang in their house (not the other way around).
Read up on choice-induced preference change and Cognitive Dissonance. There have been multiple studies (starting with Brehm in the late 50s) that show that people will increase their preference for a thing after they choose it.
(This is why they make people vote. You can get most people to say that “all politicians are bad” but then they will defend the guy they voted for because they chose him.)
People’s brains are wired to be happy most of the time (except if you have depression) so if we are constantly subjected to something we dislike slightly, over time it can become passable or even enjoyable. If you include other forms of enjoyment with the music or books you are trying to like it can help trick your brain into associating those types of art with pleasurable feelings by proxy.
So basically just keep listening to Yoko and reading books you don’t like and try to do it when conditions are perfect for their enjoyment.
If I understand right what you’re getting at, I think some of that stuff comes from studying the medium and then having an appreciation for when you notice somebody is doing technically impressive stuff. The other form of it that I’m aware of, when people like read a story and get deep into analysis of its symbolism and stuff, seems like a good half bullshit at least; I say half because while they might be constructing a legitimate metaphor out of it, it’s probably not what the artist had in mind and is more likely some form of projection on their part.
Ultimately, people like different things and sometimes for different reasons. And although there are consistent technical elements to a given craft (I’m not going to act like artforms are all random choice), there’s also a certain amount of going by feel and a certain amount of “why did this person’s work become famous but this person’s didn’t? dunno.”
Then there are those times when we actually have an answer for why something got pushed as it did: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html
It was recognised that Abstract Expression- ism was the kind of art that made Socialist Realism look even more stylised and more rigid and confined than it was. And that relationship was exploited in some of the exhibitions.
Sorry, I’m starting to realize I’ve phrased things poorly.
It’s not necessarily what is big and what isn’t. Trust me, I dont mind not enjoying what a lot of people are into while liking my niche.
It’s more like, I do really enjoy certain works, but I dont think I enjoy them the “right way” (for lack of a better term). For instance, I really like Neon Genesis Evangelion, but I feel as though a lot of the philosophy gets stuck halfway in my head. Like i pick up on some the literal things, and I think I can feel what the creator is trying to say, but I myself can express it. And I think I fail to enjoy those concepts and more enjoy the cerebral feeling of it and others like it, like Slay the Princess.
I should’ve also emphasized my lack of ability to enjoy poetry. I’ve enjoyed something in basically every other medium, but for some reason poetry doesn’t click at all for me. I’ve always failed to find the rhythm with it and while others will gush with happiness about them I’ve just…haven’t had the same experience (especially with Haiku. I’ve tried, but Haiku I just can’t write nor really understand very well. Constraints are good but I think English doesn’t work well with the restrictions).
And on the modern art stuff, I understand the CIA supported it and such, but I still do like it. And that same abstractionism is found other places too. Avant-garde art is a thing in china and the Avant-garde movement in Russia/the early Soviet union produced what I think are good works too. One of my favorite is El Lizzitsky’s “Beat the whites with the red wedge.” I also do like Picasso’s work, and he certainly was no cia stooge. Hell, I even like “who’s afraid of red yellow and blue.” If strictly for the reason that it did inspire fear and anger in people.
My point there wasn’t that modern art is bad. Just a side note about what contributed to it being pushed as much as it was at the time. Which apparently was the wrong tack anyway, since I guess you are not talking about popularity but something else.
Is it possible you are on the autism spectrum? I mean nothing bad by that, to be clear. It’s just a kind of neurodivergence to me. But I ask because if I understand right, some people on the autism spectrum have this thing of taking things very literally. So I wonder because you mention picking up on literal things. The other thing I wonder is, is English your first language? That might contribute to English feeling clunky, if it isn’t your native tongue.
As for enjoying poetry, I’m not sure what to say about that because I can write poetry myself and enjoy it to a point, but some of it feels very nonsense to me, like it’s hiding behind a lack of meaning with flowery prose. Lemme see if I can do an example:
Leaves crunching send signals into the air,
Of autumn’s arrival,
Carried on an eagle’s cry,
While blackened hearts live free or die.
^ I don’t know what this is supposed to mean. I strung together some stuff that sounds vaguely metaphorical and like it might have a deeper meaning.
Or sometimes poetry can feel up its own ass with acting like it’s deeper than it is. But I do think it has a purpose, which is expressing things that can be hard to express otherwise:
Emotions blend together like red and blue,
But don’t make purple.
Disparate and disconnected,
Unable to find sequence,
They show the DNA of traumatic suffering.
Here I’m trying to express something about how confusing emotions can be sometimes and how they may be harmed at times by trauma.
I don’t know if I’m making myself clear or better understanding your meaning at all, but there’s an attempt.
is it possible youre on the autism spectrum
Maybe? Idk, I might but I’m unsure if it’s that or adhd or just general cptsd issues.
But otherwise I think you’re understanding me well, but English is my first language. It’s more just specifically Haikus that I find clunky in English, and I’ve heard they’re more natural in Japanese.
Haikus in English have always felt like a gimmick to me more than anything else, FWIW. Now that I’m thinking about how Japanese flows with its syllables, they would probably make way more sense in that language because (for lack of a better way to put it) Japanese draws out each syllable more and languages like English more slur things together. So I imagine in Japanese, it’d make a lot more sense to have a particular syllabic limit and be getting much more out of it.
This might be a sign of depression
Liking Blake Shelton?
I don’t like Blake Shelton. Sorry, I worded that poorly
How about this. If some of Yoko Ono’s/John Lennon’s more…abstract work came on while I was eating dinner somewhere, I wouldn’t enjoy it. However I still respect it greatly because they’re trying. Maybe they’re failing, idk, but I still really do respect art such as that or, say, house of leaves more than I do Blake Shelton’s work or the divergent series. In contrast, I would probably not be bothered by Blake shelton’s music coming on at a resteraunt/bar, even if I have 0 respect for him because it’s still just decent music. I just have no respect because I think he (and other artists like him, ie Pitbull) doesn’t actively try to do something new or express themselves in some unique way. More just catching onto a hot trend and talking about the lowest common denominator of guns besr God trucks waman etc.
Make it yourself.
