"It's nice when people like it, but when they start 'appreciating' it, getting great deep things out of it, making a thing of it, then it's a lot of shit. It proves what we've always thought about most sorts of so-called art. It's all a lot of shit. It is depressing to realize we were right in what we always thought, all those years ago. Beethoven is a con, just like we are now. He was just knocking out a bit of work, that was all." -John Lennon 1968
Art Collector:
"That ebony annulus is just amazing! It SCREAMS angst through the teenage years of growing up in middletown America! Oh, what a genius the artist is, I cannot believe they have gone so long without being discovered."
Artist:
"I just thought a black dot would look cool by itself."
[... Not to imply that Shakespeare's work was a whole pile of bologna, but I do find it hard to believe that he had intended for the many metaphors and symbolic features to come out of his plays. Now granted, Shakespeare could have very well written with such an intent, which is fine, but isn't Shakespeare and other writing relative? How come Shakespeare is suppose to be so universal and timeless, yet people are constantly picking his writing apart so as to make the most justifiable interpretation possible? Personally, I feel that when the cultural context imposes the idea of reading Othello with "stereotypical views of cultural difference which insist that African men are inherently hypersexual and prone to violence" is a bunch of bull (374-375). I feel as though stories as well as films may have specific meanings to the author/producer for why he or she wrote as they did, but they know that these meanings are not necessarily going to be brought across in the story's telling because not everyone thinks as they do...]
3 comments:
Sarah, your blog was super interesting! Not only do I see your point but I really like the way you presented it. I would say John Lennon's quote put it in the best way, too. But the circle demonstration was cool also. Anyways, I like it.
Thanks Colleen :)
You make some important points about how far interpretation can go. It's also interesting to think about whether it matters what an author/artist intended. What if the black dot had a huge impact on someone, as Beethoven's music or Shakespeare's plays do...even if they had no idea it would be interpreted that way. What do you think?
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