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Notes -
There's certain content -- certain types of gore, certain furry content, etc -- that gives me "the ick".
Sometimes I remember that many people get the same "ick" feeling from anime art in general, particularly the type of anime art that gets criticized as "overly-sexualized".
What are some times when you were reminded of the unbridgeable gap between different modes of perception?
Avant-garde art.
I'm a chronic philistine that Just Doesn't Get It, and looking at most of high-brow art made after the turn of the 20th century fills me with a sense of not just indifference, but mild rage.
Every time I step into a modern art gallery or watch an artsy movie I feel like I've become the main character of The Truman Show, with the people making that stuff, critiquing it and respectfully looking at it all engaged in a giant, elaborate troll aimed at convincing me that any of those works are actually good.
I'm not proud of this trait, and I've tried reading up on art, but I just can't reject the evidence of my eyes and ears. I simply can't see it. I'd rather look at anything else – modern imitations of classicist paintings, Kinkade, AI art of big-ttited anime girls – on the wall of that art gallery than a Picasso. Because all of those look much better to my eye than any of Picasso's work.
I imagine that's how a child who got a taste of beer from his dad at a family gathering feels.
You never know what you might like. I considered Western art music to be either boring or contrived until I went to a company training seminar where they mixed practical sessions with various invited guest speakers. One of them was a pianist who talked to us about modern art music. When he played Phrygian Gates by John Adams, my reaction was normal: politely trying to look attentive and respectful of his effort. When he played a few fragments of Steve Reich and Philip Glass during his talk to illustrate something about minimalism, it was as if I was struck by lightning. "This! This is what music sounds like!" I thought and looked around me to see if everyone else was as shocked as I am. Nope, everyone else in the room that I could see was politely trying to look attentive and respectful of his effort.
My MIL (a big lover of art music) looks at me like I have two heads when I listen to music for 18 musicians, but I don't care, I love it.
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