Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Merlion" data-source="post: 3110627" data-attributes="member: 10397">You said that creative works should be judged on their own artistic merits, which, to me, implies that they either have, or lack, some sort of objective merit that one can observe and verify. You stated this in disagreement to my saying that all creative works automatically have merit but that they may or may not hold interest or enjoyment for any given person.But now your saying that merit cannot be objectively judged, which to me is in contradiction to what you said earlier.From what your saying now, I'm not sure I understand then why you would disagree with the idea that all artistic/creative works have merit or inherent value, but that they may or may not suit the tastes of a given person. But see, thats not actually true. Physically, most 15 year olds are fully, or almost fully mature. And mentally and emotionally...well, those forms of maturity are mostly subjective...again I've known very "mature" responsible, sensible teenagers, and people in their 40s with no sense of responsibility or hardly any ability to function.  In our culture, you legally become an "adult" at age 18. Thats because there has to be some sort of cut off, for legal purposes, where people start being responsible for themselves if they commit a crime etc.Actually "adulthood" or real maturity may come sooner, later, or even not at all to a person. I've known mature, responsible, sensible 15 and 16 year olds, and people in their 40s totally lacking those traits. Childhood has been considerably extended in our culture, over the past century or so...a hundred years ago, a 15 or 16 year old was considered largely grown.This tendency in our culture leads to things like people thinking a 15 year old couldnt possible write a deccent novel...even for other young people...unless they are some sort of special prodigy (I know you didnt say that, but its what I was talking about when I said the things I said.) I dont. I feel lucky....I've simply felt like *me* my entire life. Experiences have made some changes here in there in who I am, but age, the arbitary number, has not. Then I misinterpreted your intent, and I'm sorry for that. Merit isnt subjective. Its objective. Taste and enjoyment are subjective, but anything someone puts work and thought into has basic merit to some degree, at least in terms of artistic endevors. To me, you seem to need a fair amount of lightening up. Wether its true or not, you project a feeling of  negativity and cynicism, and a sense of lack of regard for others. All I'm saying is you might get more out of interactions from thinking how your words may sound from the other side. I realize its very possible that you do and either dont care how they sound, or think they sound fine...and maybe they do too everyone but me. I'm just saying what I'm getting is all</blockquote>

Verification