Basement Whatever

Should you learn to appreciate better culture? This interview insists you should. Some reasons: Because good culture shows people “how to be greater…than the forces that destroy them,” because good art shows that there is a value in ethical behavior, because it reveals life from “a position of solemn detachment.”

I think you can be an elitist without being a snob. You can think that some tastes are better than others, not just because they are more satisfying, but because they engage in a more creative and fulfilling way with the human soul, without condemning people who don’t have those tastes

You can disagree with his definition of what makes art good, but nonetheless his position is the definition of taste: He defines what makes good art, and then compares against that definition and is willing to tackle difficult work that approaches that problem.

Refining your taste is critical to protect against the dumb thinking encouraged by marketing algorithms. Their purpose is to sell, it’s not to enlighten or enrich.

But I have more work to do in establishing my tastes as completely as is articulated here. The full thing is worth reading.