When I was in college, I spent a good deal of time studying semiotics and hermeneutics -- essentially symbolism and meaning in art and literature.
There are tons of dense academic books and papers about this, many of which I still have. Most of these papers suck. They're impossible to read, written with language that is probably intentionally obtuse, and often about such obscure pieces of art that I'd have to do a bunch of homework on the subject matter before I could even begin doing the homework on the analysis.
None of what we discussed was all that complicated, but it's almost as if academics create their own obscure terminology and language simply to set up barriers between themselves and laypeople.
It's absurd. And I think it's also obsolete.
Almost every day I see a fabulous new analysis of a film, TV series, or piece of music on YouTube. They're nearly always super accessible, well-crafted, well-argued, and presented in language that anybody can understand. And it's about stuff people ACTUALLY care about!
All this academic jargon is disappearing as more and more people are participating not just in the creation of new art but in the criticism of it... and I would argue that all of this is creating a culture of younger people who are far more knowledgeable about art and far more discerning consumers of art than previous generations in meaningful terms.
I don't think about it a whole lot, but man am I glad to see ideas escape the confines of the ivory tower.
