From: | Marc Renouf renouf@********.com |
---|---|
Subject: | [GridSec] [OT] Artsy-fartsy |
Date: | Wed, 12 Apr 2000 16:29:35 -0400 (EDT) |
> > By the way, you realize that people said about Bach, Beethoven, Mozart
> > is what you just said about Kid Rock?
>
> Please tell me you're not attempting to compare multi-layered music with
> hundreds of instruments to a band of a few men and their simple three-chord
> music. And while certain composers were indeed held as not masters in their
> own time - aren't you contradicting your above point here? - their music,
> objectively, is still much better than Kid Rock, on nearly any real scale
> one can name, unless one likes simplicity and repetition. And then one is
> silly. :)
Define "objectively better." I put it to you that there is no
such thing as "objectively better." Is Mozart more technical than Kid
Rock? Yes. Was Mozart more innovative with the tools he had available in
his time? Almost certainly. Does this make it "better?" No. Just
different.
To state or imply that just because something is more complicated
or technically difficult makes it better is a *subjective* argument. When
applied to painting this becomes patently obvious. The pointillism of
Georges Seurat is very complicated and technically difficult (if you don't
believe me, try it). The sumi-e of Toko Shinoda is far less technical,
with a painting being comprised of but a few simple brush strokes (though
there are those that would argue that the strokes while few are not so
simple). Does that make Seurat's art "better" than Shinoda's? Similarly,
Piet Mondrian's art is very simple, often comprising nothing more than a
combination of basic geometric shapes of different primary colors. Does
that mean it sucks? No.
Face it, people like different things, and look for different
things in their art. Making objective qualitative judgements about art is
like making objective qualitative judgements about food - a bad idea and
pointless from the get-go.
That said, y'all need to make this interesting-yet-pointless
topical to shadowrun or take it to one of a plethora of other fora
dedicated to such pursuits.
Marc Renouf (ShadowRN GridSec - "Bad Cop" Division)
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