Is there an objective basis upon which to distinguish "good" from "bad" art?
People argue that what some call "bad" others call "good", and since both are "enjoyed" they argue art is entirely subjective, but I was reading CS Lewis and he said something that made me laugh and think.
Differences in "Like" | "Good" vs "Bad" Art
The question is not do people enjoy both bad and good art? The question is does what we call "good" art fill the same role as what we call "bad" art? No.
CS Lewis rightly points out that only truely "good" art captivates, consumes and transports an audience. Yes people "like" bad art, but trashy "bad" entertainment is disposable, forgetable and if recalled at all, years later, its only as a nostalgic memory.
You might have watched Michael Bay's Transformers, I did, but you don't watch it several times a year, like you might some classic like Big Lebowski, Pulp Fiction or Life is Beautiful.
Lewis argues that we can therefore objectively differentiate between good vs bad art, on the basis of how we read or watch the material:
We re-read "Good" Books:
"...the literary man re-reads, other men simply read. A novel once read is to them like yesterday's newspaper. One may have some hopes of a man who has never read 'The Odyssey', or Malory or Boswell or Pickwick, but none, as regards literature, of the man who tells you he has read them and thinks that settles the matter.
It is as if a man said he had once washed or once slept, or once kissed his wife, or once gone for a walk."
-C.S. Lewis
In good art you are intangled and torn up, consumed by the content, enraptured time and again even already having enjoyed it 10 or even 20 times before. On the other hand "bad" art may entertain, we may even "like" it but it never engages in the same way.
He argues brilliantly that while men may "like" good or bad art, in the two cases the word "like" means something entirely different and incomparable. We like bad art but it doesn't capture ourselves deeply enough to demand re-reading.
Think of it this way, you may love pizza and your wife but if the former context carried the same weight as the latter... well, let's just hope it doesn't.
Thoughts and Comments?
What do you think? Is some art truly "good" or "bad", or is art totally subjective? Do you enjoy, and re-read "bad" art? Do you re-read "bad" poetry, literature or re-watch "bad" movies or shows even years later?
I don't mean repeatedly over a short time but across a lifetime?
If you watched it as a kid and loved it but no longer than it has not enraptured and transported in the way Lewis describes truly "good" art. I agree with that categorization of good vs bad, do you?
Thanks. Hope you enjoyed this. Have a great day.