tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-253865779660854699.post5623376828921144403..comments2023-10-15T09:36:12.013+01:00Comments on Countercultural Father: Some criteria for discernment...Ben Trovatohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299230935468606845noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-253865779660854699.post-83789561850514977392015-11-18T21:21:16.222+00:002015-11-18T21:21:16.222+00:00My intention was that the intention of the compose...My intention was that the intention of the composer should be considered as part of my second criterion.<br /><br />As you will not be Supreme Leader until you have deposed and executed me, I am not so worried about that part of your argument. <br /><br />If you can't study the subject, clearly you have to rely on experts whose judgement you trust, or (horror of horrors) not have an opinion! As it happens I agree about Lorca, though not Tchaikovsky. Clearly there is a place (and an important one) for taste and personal preference; but to say that only what I like can be classified as great is somewhat egocentric (even for me). Time is quite good at shaking these things down. Who seriously imagines that anyone other than scholars of the absurd will be reading (say) Dan Brown in 50, or even 15, years time?Ben Trovatohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15299230935468606845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-253865779660854699.post-64793590399199142862015-11-18T20:43:37.730+00:002015-11-18T20:43:37.730+00:00What about the intention of the composer? you have...What about the intention of the composer? you haven't mentioned that. What is the difference between a Goya painting of a naked woman posed on a chaise longue and a Playboy photograph of an identical pose? What happens if a composer sets out to identify the elements of cheap popular music that attract young people: does that invalidate his work? (If so, why? and if not why not?)<br /><br />I think that there is definitely a difference between good and bad art, but the only objective criterion I can come up with is that I can tell which is which, and until I become Supreme Leader, that probably won't do (and pedants might have the temerity to think that even after I become Supreme Leader it still wouldn't do).<br /><br />And how are you (if you can't study the subject) going to tell whether, let's say, Lorca is a genius of modern literature or a gay icon whose fame is due to his sexuality? And what if, when you accept (as anybody should) that the answer is the former, rather than the latter, you can see where the answer comes from, but you just don't like Lorca? (As a music lover might see how brilliantly Tchaikovsky could string the notes together, but hated the mellifluous, self-pitying, exorbitant, selfish and self-centred result.)<br /><br />These are just a few first thoughts, but I think they are pointing me towards an Academy, or, perhaps, a Magisterium. <br /><br />Equally, I may be completely off-beam.Ttonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15185875893212146794noreply@blogger.com