No one knows which is asleep, and which one is inspired
Who knew that people still thought like this?
I quite agree with you that there is no clean cut distinction between art and non-art. You might recall in fact that only very recently I was arguing that some works are only good 'in patches'.
There is a continuum, in my view, with nullities like rock music at the bottom, jazz only a few more inches up the scale, something like Gilbert and Sullivan or Strauss waltzes vaguely near the middle, and then works of the kind I listed (Mozart et al) at the top.
Comments
on 2005-05-04 19:04:33.0, bitchphd commented:
You do remember me arguing with Prof. Goose over whether rap and hiphop counted as music, don't you?
and, further, on 2005-05-04 19:41:26.0, tammy commented:
That's kind of strange. I would expect someone who points out Strauss and Sullivan as the middle to put Wagner or Mahler or someone at the top—Beethoven at the very least. Mozart? (unless "Mozart et al." is intended to encompass all of these, which would really nullify any sense of reasoning on the rest of the scale.)
I think you should start citing your sources, by the way. You won't get away with this funny stuff at Stanford!
and, further, on 2005-05-04 20:05:14.0, ben wolfson commented:
It was a guy on an aesthetics mailing list. I thought about emailing him and asking what his rationale was, but I suspect that in general there's no use in talking to people who have Great Chains of Being set up like that.
I do remember the argument with Prof. Goose, now that you mention it—and vaguely took part in it—but I thought it was a little more tempered than this. Wasn't he just calling rap extremely derivative, but not actually saying it wasn't music?
and, further, on 2005-05-05 2:26:24.0, dave zacuto commented:
Kierkegaard lives!
and, further, on 2005-05-05 8:07:28.0, Joe Drymala commented:
Wasn't he just calling rap extremely derivative
Heh. As opposed to, say, Stravinsky?
and, further, on 2005-05-05 17:29:00.0, bitchphd commented:
He did, in fact, say it wasn't music.
Or maybe my memory is exaggerating. But I'm pretty sure. You can go check if you want.