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Issue 218: In order for any work of art-whether film, literature, sculpture, or a song-to have merit, it must be understandable to most people.
I take an exception with the author’s assertion that the work of art-whether film, literature, sculpture, or a song must be understandable to most people in order to have merit.
To begin with, there is no relationship between understandability of work of art and its merit. According to what Freud has said（and I paraphrased）art, in essence, is a kind of release of individual lust, converting the human libido into plentiful creativity. It is through the work of art that artists express their passions, emotions, and desires. In light of this, art is therefore, first and foremost, concerning with the inner world rather than with the outside one as a whole. In other words, if the theme, which is intended to be expressed finally, has merit and thus the work of art has merit. Actually it is the pattern of manifestation that makes the work of art hard to understand. It is to some extent just like a gift, no matter how beautiful or ugly the wrappers is, we have to tore it away and see what is inside. In short, the understandability of the work of art doesn’t necessarily indicate its merit.
In the second place, the work of art doesn’t need people to understand it and due to individual difference in condition, experience, education and so forth people’s comprehension of the work of art cannot be alike. On one hand, most people are not connoisseurs or psychologists, fully understanding of the work of art are unpractical for us. In fact, if we can feel the sense of beauty the artists want to express, that’s enough. Consider, for example, maybe we are not able to understand what symphony wish to convey, but our heart is touched, so it has its merit; maybe we are not able to understand what poem wish to convey, but we feel the poet’s emotion, so it has its merit. On the other hand, to some degree, because of the abstruseness of the work of art, its merit is improved. Just as an old saying goes: “There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes.” Is there anyone who fully understands Hamlet? Of course not! As you can see, it doesn’t matter Hamlet to become a noted masterpiece.
However, any work of art which doesn’t express artist’s real ideas or it is created only to pander to the audience, its merit will not exist for long. For instance, some boring commercial films of which purpose is to make profit only, it may draw attention in short time but thanks to its little merit, it will be overwhelmed by next boring commercial film.
In the last analysis, to judge the merit of any work of art depends on its own significance and people’s feeling of it instead of its understandability.
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发表于 2013-3-4 17:10:26
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