So here’s something I’ve been chewing on: My aesthetic prejudices are totally inconsistent.
When it comes to film, television, or theater, for instance, I’m up for just about anything. It can be a dumb romantic comedy or a teeth-gnashing tragedy or a reality show about people falling off big red balls, but unless it’s situated in one of my two no-fly zones, I’ll give it a shot. (Those zones, by the way, are “sneak attack” humiliation comedy and torture porn. Therefore, no Bruno, no Crank Yankers, no Hostel, no 24.)
With pop music, however, I have an allergic reaction to artists who deny me hooks. I mean, I liked Bjork up through “Isobel” and “It’s Oh So Quiet,” but now that she’s making entire albums using only the sound of her multi-tracked voice, I just can’t do it. Nor can I handle Radiohead’s spaced-out canoodling or Ani DiFranco’s late-career meandering or Andre 3000’s formless experiments.
The reason? I want to be entertained. I’d prefer to have texture and substance in my pop music, sure, but in a pinch, I’ll settle for a catchy chorus. Let others have their Deerhoof and their Blonde Redhead. I’ll be over here, unironically enjoying a gooey blob that Max Martin just poured out of his sugar machine.
On the other hand, I cannot read a silly, poppy book. Cannot. My idea of beach reading is a collection of Alice Munro’s short stories. I read Schiller on the plane. Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code made me crazy, and the one time I picked up a Nicholas Sparks novel, I stopped after five pages.
The latter books were too mindless. Too clunky. I couldn’t enjoy them because I kept focusing on their unvaried sentence structures and repetitive verb use.
And what’s more, if a book even seems “beachy,” I’ll probably avoid it, whereas if it’s printed in a trade paperback edition with a clever cover design, I’ll probably pick it up. Same deal, in reverse, with music. If the first ten seconds are bouncy, I’m in. If all I hear is a whiny-voiced dude and a harpsichord… check you later.
So why these distinctions and divisions? Well… I’ll tell you…
Mostly, it’s because I’m a writer by trade. I spend every day thinking about how words are put together, so for me, the greatest pleasure in reading often comes from savoring another writer’s style. A ripping plot is always welcome, of course, but I need it wrapped in a well-turned phrase.
I know almost nothing about making music, though, so I don’t respond to craft in such a bone-deep way. That’s not to say I don’t engage with the music I like, but as I think The Critical Condition proves, my response is almost always more emotional, social, and cultural than structural. Freed from a certain type of knowledge, I can hear music on different terms. I can enjoy the effect of the food without learning the ingredients.
And I’m not saying one extreme is better than the other. I love thinking about writing the way I do, and I enjoy my more amateurish response to music. (And besides, nothing is totally extreme. To some degree, I always think about music and get lost in books… but you know what I mean.)
I think I’m most open with film, television, and theater because they combine the elements of my profession with the art of professions I don’t practice. I can analyze a script while simply savoring special effects. I can see how those pieces fit together and get an analytical and a visceral fix at the same time.
Does any of this strike a chord? Do you relate to different media in different ways? If so, then why?
I’m just beginning to feel my way around this subject. I’d love to hear your thoughts and reactions.
14 responses so far ↓
1 sabi // Jul 6, 2009 at 4:48 am
Mark,
I read your blog and I enjoy your NPR and New York Times writing, talk about journalistic elitism. You have nicely put into words how I feel about so much of the culture pop crap that people enjoy but that I find untolerable. I would say I was a TV snob except I own Charlie’s Angels first season on DVD in collectable lunch box. I have often wondered why I have so little tolerance for some obvious junk and I embrace others with glee. I am a movie snob and get furious at Big Bix Office Crapolla and yet I have Plan 9 From Outer Space and Overboard on DVD because they entertain me no matter how many times I watch. Now literature and it’s lack there of in many best sellers drives me insane and I have trouble staying in book clubs because of the inane drivel it seems most of my collegues enjoy reading. Nick Sparks, ha, try Jodi Piqualt. Have you read any of the Twilight books? OMG. I could not get through 20 pages of the second one. I work in a High School and the students insisted I read the books but the first one kept disappearing from the library. I attribute my skewed sense of aesthetics to having read, watched, eaten and listened to a lot in the last 50 years so I come by my prejudice honestly and with a certain authority.(according to me) Like I said I enjoy reading your work. See I have good taste. Music is a different matter. I enjoy what I enjoy and if it is danceable much is forgiven.
I am having my morning coffee right now and I tend to get a bit rambly at this time of the morning. I will continue to enjoy your takes on all that is entertainment and rest easier knowing that there is a beacon of needed snobery in the dark sea of 21st Century Pop Culture Consumerism. And I love San Francisco and would live there and have for brief times but life takes different turns often and unexpectedly.
ps I love you for even knowing who Alice Munro is let alone enjoying her at the beach.
2 kmc // Jul 6, 2009 at 9:09 am
Wow, nice thoughts, Mark.
I find this holds very true for less popular (as in pop-culture-friendly) art forms. As a former modern dance student, I am more apt to enjoy all sorts of modern dance pieces – even the strange ones – because I can understand the work that went into them and the artistic conversation in which they are taking part. But classical music? I really have no background in it, so I can’t find my way to enjoy the less-traditional (i.e. not the “Nutcracker Suite”) pieces.
This probably works with most art forms – if you get the mechanics behind it, you are able to enjoy more elements of it.
3 BDanger // Jul 6, 2009 at 9:43 am
I have to admit… I have read a few books in the past year or so that follow the pattern of the movie “Crash” and many have been clumisly thrown together and poorly done. I am pretty turned off by the whole genre. I think a lot of authors are using it as a venue to tell a few short stories and “connect” them by all of the characters visiting the same grocery store. It just doesn’t do anything for me.
4 Donna // Jul 6, 2009 at 12:34 pm
I so so agree with you on being unable to read beachy books that are poorly written. I cannot stand Jodi Picoult – I read three of her books after several people insisted what a good writer she was and it must have just been the one book of hers that I picked that I didn’t like.
I also get distracted by redundancy. I read a book where the author used the word “purloined” every time he wanted to say something was stolen. I’m all for vocabulary, but it got on my nerves that he couldn’t change it up a bit.
My favorite author is Margaret Atwood. I love the way she infuses poetic descriptions into her narratives. She never fails to describe something in a fresh and vivid way that makes me glad I picked up another one of her books.
5 Donna // Jul 6, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I should add that I’m not nearly as discriminating when it comes to tv. If there are unscripted idiots and a camera, I’ll probably watch it. More to Love, anyone?
6 heatherkay // Jul 6, 2009 at 12:43 pm
“Sneak attack humiliation.” I feel that. The thought of seeing Bruno makes my palms sweaty.
7 Will // Jul 6, 2009 at 1:02 pm
“People’s lives, in Jubilee as elsewhere, were dull, simple, amazing and unfathomable – deep caves paved with kitchen linoleum.”
- Alice Munro, from “Lives of Girls and Women”
8 Sarah // Jul 6, 2009 at 4:03 pm
I do relate to media differently I’m a movie buff.
Somedays I sit and wonder why does the News paper only consist of negative issues?
The Newspaper sells what people want. People like shocking, appalling stories…gossip.
Just look at these reality shows..lately I personally think lot of people like living in the fantasy world.
And as for books I read a lot I bought James Spader and a few Dean Koontz books. But also
A few religious books like a purpose driven life by Rick Warren. I can’t stand it when I read a book and its a great book
But then they make a movie of the book like for instance
(Like Water For Chocolate) by Laura Esquivel it was originally In spanish then done in english. Personally I like the book better.
Pride and Prejudice now I’ve seen the movie and I plan on reading the book but I hope by reading the book it doesn’t ruin the movie for me.
I took journalism for four years I’m more of a critic against my own work than I am of others.
9 Russ Jackson // Jul 7, 2009 at 12:41 am
Wait a minute, which Radiohead are you referring to? Their last album, In Rainbows, was quite good and got generally positive reviews all around.
And although I thought The Love Below was pretty amazing, I prefer him as part of Outkast proper.
As far as my tastes go, I tend to avoid most music that I can’t feel anything from. It’s not easy to explain, but I can definitely tell the difference between an artist and someone just making noise for money.
I may not be into every song in Radiohead’s catalog but I feel like I understand what they’re trying to say a whole lot more than, say, Sheryl Crow, who to me is a good example of the most vapid, soulless music I’ve ever heard.
10 Mark Blankenship // Jul 7, 2009 at 2:13 am
Hey Russ… I’m totally willing to concede that I’m making ill-informed judgments against Radiohead… but that’s why I call them my aesthetic prejudices. I had another reader recommend a few Bjork songs via e-mail, and if you’ve got any Radiohead suggestions, I’d love to hear them. I’m not opposed to them, really… it’s just that I’ve found enough of their music ponderous and self-satisfied to make me give up.
11 Russ Jackson // Jul 7, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Listen to The Bends. Best Radiohead album ever.
12 Carol Elaine // Jul 9, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Heh. I’m totally the opposite with music. Maybe I am a bit of a music snob, but I vastly prefer layers and complexity to a simple pop hook. I lovelovelove the simplicity of a singer and an acoustic guitar (or piano or any other single instrument well played), but even then I love for the music and/or lyrics to take me someplace I didn’t expect. Colin Hay, Keb’ Mo’ and Marian Call do that well, as does Jonatha Brooke. Ani DiFranco’s musical experimentation thrills me, even when it’s less than successful.
My favorite Broadway composer of all time is Stephen Sondheim precisely because he does such unexpected things with melody, harmony and lyrics and yet his music is instantly recognizable as Sondheim. Conversely, I can’t stand Andrew Lloyd Webber as a solo act – his best work was when he was with Tim Rice – because he’s so fucking predictable. Also, not much of a Rodgers and Hammerstein fan, with the exception of a few songs, but I adore Lerner and Lowe.
As for movies, well, I’m kinda snobby there too. I’ve loosened up a bit since I started seeing my boyfriend, who is a movie enthusiast and loves crappy horror and grindhouse films (I love horror movies, but more along the line of Hammer horror films or anything with Vincent Price – yeah, I know he’s done some bad one’s, but he’s so gosh-darned entertaining in them), but most romcoms bore the crap out of me unless I find the leads especially appealing – most of the time I don’t. Don’t like tearjerkers except for one or two and Farrelly Brother-type comedies are exquisitely painful for me. Action films usually leave me cold (though Die Hard IS pretty damned great – thank you, Alan Rickman).
Contrary to my above paragraph, I really do like movies. Usually ones that take a chance or are just supremely excellent good pieces of entertainment.
(Though, yeah, even I can’t explain why Earth Girls Are Easy still entrances me after all these years. Wait, yes I can: a young, bare chested Jeff Goldblum. Oh my.)
As for books, I’ll read almost anything, but it’s got to be well written. I’ve never read anything by Dan Brown and I never want to. I am John Irving’s and Nick Hornby’s bitch, Kurt Vonnegut and the team of Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle grab me every damned time and I am surprisingly a fan of Sue Miller’s work. Neil Gaiman is phenomenal. And I loves me some Arthur Conan Doyle.
I guess I’m just a snob in general. I don’t mean to be. It’s just where my tastes lie, I guess.
(Sorry about the novel above, Mark.)
13 Maggie // Jul 10, 2009 at 3:35 am
I know exactly where you’re coming from, Mark. I will listen to anything on Top 40 radio, I’ll watch as many reality shows, teen dramas and romantic comedies as the television and film studios can church out. I watched Grease 2 the other day…on purpose. And I cannot wait to see Final Destination 4 in 3-D.
But I am a book snob. I can’t enjoy a book if I’m reading it and thinking to myself “I could have written this!” Nicolas Sparks makes my eye twitch. Jodi Picoult infuriates me by refusing to write a book that actually says something. The DaVinci Code is just silly. If I want to zone out with some brain candy, I’ll watch Pretty Woman or Dirty Dancing for the 700th time. But when it comes to reading, I’d rather have Tolstoy.
14 Michael // Jul 12, 2009 at 6:00 pm
I’ve argued for years that the reason to get an education, including an education in the arts, is to be able to enjoy more things, not fewer. People get all tense and fearful that if they educate their taste so that they can see through simple, formulaic, manipulative work, they will become something called “elitist”–joyless, antisocial, soulless haters of common pleasures. But the point is that there’s a world of better stuff out there that delivers more joy–better films, better jazz, better novels, even (gasp) poetry and classical forms of music and dance. The world needs its humane, articulate, enthusiastic nerds and defenders of the arcane.
Nevertheless, I do feel that sometimes there’s something mysterious about our susceptibilities. I don’t have the pop music chromosome–is it because I never danced much? Even the Beatles meant almost nothing to me; but when, in high school, entirely on my own, I started listening to opera recordings, I became fascinated and am still alive to that music today. That’s not about education–my bookwormish contempt for paperback bestsellers, in contrast, comes from a lot of years of reading classic novels–but this spontaneous musical snobbery (although it’s not really that, it’s susceptibility) came prior to any training or education. It’s apparently how I’m wired. So I would go easy on the scorn for music that doesn’t reach me–but I’d be happy to point out how Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte is as complex a vision of love as any popular form has ever offered.
Similarly, our sympathies can bely our education: having taught dramatic literature all these years, I have never, despite Western tradition’s dictates, believed in tragedy so much as I believe in comic forms, which (I feel, therefore I think) carry a more persuasive truth.
So the interplay of education and experience with personal wiring makes our artistic susceptibilities always surprising.
Thanks for opening this up, Mark–
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