In praise of art.

[butterfly]

I love quite a lot of television.

Now, this is surely obvious to... anyone who has either read this journal or actually met me in person. Television itself, of course, I neither love nor hate. It's a medium, just like paintings or books or music. A medium is not good or bad; it's merely a means of communicating. The medium that a material plays in has nothing to do with its quality. There is a lot of truly horrible and mind-wasting television out there. This does not make television, as a medium, horrible and mind-wasting, any more than Robinson Crusoe makes books boring and stupid (I apologize if you like the book, but I really do hate it that much. It is possibly the book that I like least in the universe.).

Any time someone starts arguing that a category is stupid or a theme is pointless or a story is played out, I must disagree. It's always, always, about what the creator is saying and how they say it. A master of a craft can make their medium sing, no matter how many people have failed to do so before.

Television can be art, just as surely as photographs can. The existence of cheap, tacky nudie pictures don't negate the value of a well-composed photo.

Well-made television has soul, just as surely as a well-written book. It can create worlds and gods and dreams. The possibility of art exists in anything created -- a stool can be art, when made with enough vision and care. Beauty exists in all things. An artist finds a beauty that only they can see and they coax it out of their chosen medium until others can see it, too.

This is how we share ourselves with each other -- we show each other our vision of beauty, of truth, of hope. Of love. The arts are the languages of the soul.

Comments

[elynross.livejournal.com]

It makes me crazy when people blanket dismiss TV as a waste of time or a soporific or something that intrinsically makes people more stupid. It happened three times within a couple days this week, in various articles and interviews, and it's gotten to the point that expressing that opinion is a sure way to make me disregard pretty much anything else you have to say.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

It makes me crazy when people blanket dismiss TV as a waste of time or a soporific or something that intrinsically makes people more stupid. It happened three times within a couple days this week, in various articles and interviews, and it's gotten to the point that expressing that opinion is a sure way to make me disregard pretty much anything else you have to say.

I don't go quite that far, but I do think that they aren't very open-minded, which makes me lend a bit less weight to their opinions. There really is so much fantastically done television out there. It's also something that brings me so much pleasure and has caused me to think so deeply about the world and about people, and their inability to appreciate it means that we have one fewer way of communicating.

[eva-mac.livejournal.com]

Well said. I plan to use this the next time someone disses television as 'low' culture. (No, really. "You watch THAT? But you used to be so smart!" I almost decked them.)

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Well said. I plan to use this the next time someone disses television as 'low' culture. (No, really. "You watch THAT? But you used to be so smart!" I almost decked them.)

Argh. That sounds like such a frustrating thing to hear.

I just... I get so much out of the television viewing that I do. I end up looking more deeply at the world, giving people more understand, and just broadening my horizons in too many ways to count.

[siinik.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. I completely agree. I don't know how some people can dismiss something like television, that become such an important part of our culture - sure there's bad TV, but, hell you already said everything so eloquently. I'm amazed, though, by how when a show is really good it's like this *electrifying* force, that just captures people's imaginations. It's...um...cool. XD

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed, though, by how when a show is really good it's like this *electrifying* force, that just captures people's imaginations. It's...um...cool.

Yes! That's the power of art. And television is able to connect on so many levels -- visuals, motion, language, sound. There are so many voices involved that it's like an enormous mural, created by many hands but with one over-riding message. Television is fantastic and I refuse to feel ashamed of loving it.

[anoel.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes and yes. I love television as a medium and what you can do with it. I fail to see why films are considered so much better than TV. It's frustrating when people give it a bad opinion when there are so many shows that prove it wrong. It has art and most definitely soul and it can be a beautiful way of communiticating. I love your last line, that's just how I feel.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

It has art and most definitely soul and it can be a beautiful way of communiticating.

It really can be. I hate it when people disregard a medium based on only a few samples of it. It's what you do with it that counts. There are some amazing things being done on television right now -- shows that are about exploring the depth in human relationships or showing all sides to different philosophical issues.

There is beauty there, and truth.