This post concludes the exchange I started documenting in yesterday's Miley Cyrus Traffic, Part 1 and based on my Miley Cyrus aka Hannah Montana dances nude on your desktop earning US$1Million/week while gas is over US$3.50/gal, Health Clinics are Shutting Down and a World Wide Food Shortage Looms post. One correspondent's thoughts truly impressed me and, with permission, I'm sharing them.
I wrote back to this individual "I'm very impressed by what you've written here. I'm curious, would you have thought in this much detail about color, placement, shading, etc., before talking with me? Good work regardless.
Mind if I make a blog post out of it? I wish the other emails I've received about it were as astute."
What follows is their response.
I would not have given it much thought at all without knowing you, forget detail. One of those pieces of my brain that I occasionally try to understand seems to prickle when I see/hear someone dismissing the thoughts/opinions of a group of people. It isn't so much that doing so is wrong by default (I've been dismissing all thoughts, pro and con, regarding Britney for some time), but the devil's advocate in me stands up and tries to find value in the dismissed thoughts/opinions. If your posting hadn't struck me as dismissive, I would not have taken the time to look at the picture and I hadn't taken the time to see/hear what the fuss surrounding Cyrus was about.
More to your question, I don't take the time to notice these details in art. I don't take the time to appreciate art. I've been to art museums and all I've taken away from the experiences is the ability to say I've been to art museums. Two things motivated me to do it here. The first is that I respect your opinion and I wanted to present a counter view in a voice you'd appreciate/respect. I would not have done this for anyone else because I can't think of anyone I know who'd have appreciated the effort. Second, I don't think Cyrus approached these photos in the same manner the Drunken Pirate appraoched her myspace page. I think she was trying to be provocative and artistic. It isn't fair to be critical of her without appreciating the message within the art.
Post as you see fit and thank you for the compliment.
Well written and well reasoned. For the record, it wasn't my desire to critical of Ms. Cyrus, only the news establishment that considers these photos more worthy than the other topics I listed in my original post.
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For the record (as I 'reveal' the correspondent), you didn't come across as critical of Cyrus. I was defending the outrage of the public/media and, with that, promoting some critical thoughts regarding the decision of Cyrus to produce these photos. I didn't think it was fair of me to be critical of her without also taking the time to appreciate her artistic message.
The fact that I knew you would appreciate the analysis and the fact that I was being critical of her decision that prompted me to take the time to appreciate the message. By 'appreciate', I am trying to express the visual equivalent of 'listen to', although I am not sure that is the correct audio-visual translation.
Again, thank you for the compliment.
Posted by: Windkiller | June 4, 2008 9:20 AM | Permalink to Comment