Jan 23, 2009
Why is it hard to appreciate art in the same way we naturally appreciate other good things?
Lewis’s poetry lesson applied to Christmas cookies:
They’re easily appreciated both for what they are (tasty) and what they mean (Yay, Christmas!).
* * * * *
Cookies, as all great art, must succeed at the popular level.
I never thought Xmas cookies were all that good. But they’re still fun.
I guess to continue our analogy, they’re sort of like Neil Diamond.
Everyone NEEDS cookies; art, not so much.
We all need to have our aesthetics trained (see Heb 5:14).
Otherwise, we might continue to regard sugary cookies as one of our greatest pleasures.
Frank, you totally win. I’m LOLing. :-)
Eventually, everyone gets me, KP. They may get me and still hate me, but they get me.
I succeed at the popular level, much like Moon Pies.
“To make a statue needs skill: to view a statue aright needs skill also.”
-Epictetus
Pierre Bourdieu, the Marxist/Sociologist/Literary Critic/Theorest has an interesting answer for this question.
He basically says that because of one’s upbringing in a more art-oriented family she is more likely to enjoy art, because of being explicitly taught by her parents that art is worthy of appreciation, or implicitly understood by the prestige given art by galleries and museums.
i.e. Brendan’s quote from Epictetus.
and he wasn’t a theorest, he was a theorist. :) Sigh.