i do not at all mean this in a perjorative manner, but i do think it’s important to be able to consume a piece of media and go, “i’m not the audience for this” and be able to just walk away
there doesn’t have to be something wrong or “problematic” about something for a person to not like it. personal taste is personal taste. but something not doing it for you doesn’t mean it automatically has to be wrong or bad. it’s just not for you.
There’s been several times when I’ve watched a thing and been like, they clearly did what they intended to do, and did it well, and I don’t want any part of it. This is a high quality and deeply unpleasant piece of art.
“This is a high quality and deeply unpleasant piece of art” is a wonderful line, I love it, I feel it in my soul
too good a take to be left in the tags
Recently, my son said to me after seeing a ballet on television: “It’s beautiful but I don’t like it.” And I thought, Are many grown-ups capable of such a distinction? It’s beautiful, but I don’t like it. Usually, our grown-up thinking is more along the lines of: I don’t like it, so it’s not beautiful. What would it meant to separate those two impressions for art making and for art criticism?
- Sarah Ruhl, 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time To Write
This is a conversation that comes up pretty frequently with my spouses while we’re watching The Voice. “This isn’t my thing, but I can appreciate that they’re really good at it.” The sooner you learn to appreciate that you don’t have to like something and that doesn’t make it objectively bad, the happier you will be, and I mean that most sincerely.
