09-17-2016, 06:53 AM
Okay okay okay. I wrote this response up when Ray posted, but I didn't quite feel like posting at the time, so I just saved it as a draft. Here ya go.
'If you "like" or "don't like" the art, you're experiencing emotion engendered by the art. '
Yeah, but it doesn't go much beyond that. I figured it was limited and shallow enough to be negligible. I'm not exactly stoic or such.
'You may not seek it, but doesn't it happen anyway?'
Only on rare occasions.
'Maybe you mean that you don't like to feel empathy or sympathy with the speaker?'
This is true as well.
'Are you indifferent to your own emotions as well? Or just about manipulation from the outside?'
Definitely not indifferent, although it seems like it would be nice. Emotions are weird for me. I built a resistance to emotional manipulation during some family trouble when I was fresh out of high school. I don't let the emotions of my family affect my own anymore. Going on the movie subject: I don't cry watching movies, reading books, or listening to songs, no matter the content. My parents were very concerned when I had no reaction to the movie Eight Below. I love dogs, and to this day, I'm still more saddened by the death of my two dogs than any of my relatives or classmates. Fiction in particular does not give me those emotional reactions. Very few movies come close to making me feel something other than "good movie" or "that was terrible." Books, almost never.
The bottom line here, as I've mentioned in other threads somewhere, I strive for objectivity as much as possible. I don't always achieve it, but I sure would like to. I never look for emotional content in art - for some reason it always seems to take a little away from the parts that are objectively good. I prefer that everything be cut and dry, black and white - having a clear answer with no grey areas. The way I always have seen it, emotions are a grey area.
(Probably not explained very well)
'If you "like" or "don't like" the art, you're experiencing emotion engendered by the art. '
Yeah, but it doesn't go much beyond that. I figured it was limited and shallow enough to be negligible. I'm not exactly stoic or such.
'You may not seek it, but doesn't it happen anyway?'
Only on rare occasions.
'Maybe you mean that you don't like to feel empathy or sympathy with the speaker?'
This is true as well.
'Are you indifferent to your own emotions as well? Or just about manipulation from the outside?'
Definitely not indifferent, although it seems like it would be nice. Emotions are weird for me. I built a resistance to emotional manipulation during some family trouble when I was fresh out of high school. I don't let the emotions of my family affect my own anymore. Going on the movie subject: I don't cry watching movies, reading books, or listening to songs, no matter the content. My parents were very concerned when I had no reaction to the movie Eight Below. I love dogs, and to this day, I'm still more saddened by the death of my two dogs than any of my relatives or classmates. Fiction in particular does not give me those emotional reactions. Very few movies come close to making me feel something other than "good movie" or "that was terrible." Books, almost never.
The bottom line here, as I've mentioned in other threads somewhere, I strive for objectivity as much as possible. I don't always achieve it, but I sure would like to. I never look for emotional content in art - for some reason it always seems to take a little away from the parts that are objectively good. I prefer that everything be cut and dry, black and white - having a clear answer with no grey areas. The way I always have seen it, emotions are a grey area.
(Probably not explained very well)
If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.
"Or, if a poet writes a poem, then immediately commits suicide (as any decent poet should)..." -- Erthona
"Or, if a poet writes a poem, then immediately commits suicide (as any decent poet should)..." -- Erthona