The Presentation of Art

So, until my A Nightmare on Elm Street review marathon begins, I thought I'd fill the time with a few articles. For today's, I want to touch on something I place great importance on - the presentation of art, or, the correct way of absorbing art.

What I mean by "the presentation of art" is how one watches a movie, how one listens to a song, how one takes in a painting, etc. It’s how the art is presented to you, and how you let it be presented to you. I know I probably shouldn't be, but I get really upset and even annoyed when people don't experience art correctly or don't put in the time and effort to really let themselves take in a piece of art. To me, it's a huge disservice to the artist and art, and is a huge disservice to the person themselves because they miss out on, and, more importantly, deny themselves, the opportunity to really take something in that could in fact truly touch and affect them had they given the art the attention it deserved.

One of the plainest examples I can give of this is when

Friendship and Morality test

So, I want to talk about something that I've pondered on for years, and it has to do with friendship. Here's the context:

There's three friends involved: A, B, and C.

Here's the scenario: Friend C does something to A that A considers really messed up and is hurt by, and now they're not on speaking terms. Friend B then has two options: Not speak to C in solidarity with A, or continue being friends with C because the situation between A and C doesn't concern him.

Now, both options have arguments as to why they're the right thing to do as opposed to the other. Personally, I originally believed that B should side with A because, even if it doesn't concern him, if B knows that C did some wrong to A then the siding with A would communicate to C that B thinks what C did was wrong too and that that's not okay. It would also show a loyalty to A. Furthermore, if B didn't side with A and continued to be friends with C despite how A feels hurt by C, then that to me seems like B doesn't really care about A, or, at least no as much as they care about themselves; like, they'd rather be friends with both still out of their own sake and that to me seems a little selfish. Then the pressure is put on C to make the next move, which would, hopefully, be apologizing to A.

I once proposed this scenario to a friend of mine, and they thought the opposite. They believed that if A asked B to not be friends with C, then A isn't a good friend to ask B to choose friends when it doesn't concern B. Furthermore, because what C did wasn't to B, if B sided with A it would be seen as messed up to C.

But that's kind of why I still think B should side with A; it's similar to the saying "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Isn't a nobler thing to stand up against wrong doings, especially when it wasn't done to you?

I'm still a little conflicted on what's conclusively the right thing to do though, and am willing to hear why B shouldn't side with A and continue to associate with C. What do you think?

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ANNOUNCER: Well, that's all for this entry. I hope you enjoyed the article and your time spent here. We here at no1important studios invite you to come again for another riveting entry. And remember, "Like it? Share it!" This is Jovan signing off, good morning. And, if I don't catch you later, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.

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To Borrow

I'm going to explore something related to what I talked about in one of my first posts. Going off of talking about gift-giving, I want to move to the act of borrowing because it's something that I also personally see a lot of significance in the act that I don't think others necessarily recognize.

To me, the act of a person letting another borrow something of theirs is loaded with the value of trust. When Person B borrows an item from Person A, not only is Person A giving them the item itself but they’re also imparting upon them an amount of trust, trust that Person B will take care of their item but also trust that Person B will be responsible enough to return the item/favor. Whenever I borrow something from a friend, whenever I’m Person B, I make it a primary aim of mine to take care of the object even better then if it was my own because in letting me borrow from them, Person A is letting me know that they think that I am a trustworthy person and I don’t want to betray them or that thought.

I’ve had experiences where I let a friend borrow something from me only to have it returned in a less than reasonable condition. I would be mad not just because of the condition of the item but because I trusted my friend. As the trustee, when you betray the truster’s trust they’ve imbued upon you then in a way you’re also conveying to your truster that you don’t care. Of course, I don’t want to sound too sensitive or vulnerable; the degree of hurt caused is directly relative to the magnitude of the item/trust imparted on the trustee. So yes, if I let you borrow a pencil of mine and you break it, I won’t go to pieces and sob uncontrollably. However, I do still think it’s important that people realize just what is being said when someone let’s them borrow something.

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ANNOUNCER: Well, that's all for this entry. I hope you enjoyed the article and your time spent here. We here at no1important studios invite you to come again for another riveting entry. And remember, "Like it? Share it!" This is Jovan signing off, good morning. And, if I don't catch you later, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.

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Gift-Giving

So, I know I kind of hyped up my blog in my first entry about what’s to come, but it’s been a week since then, so yeah I guess I’m off to a fairly good start. In all honesty, I put off putting anything up because I started my blog right before Christmas and I wanted to avoid writing about the holiday; I didn’t really have anything to say about it, it’s whatever. But I recently felt inspired to write about the act of giving gifts.

First thing on my mind is the invention of the wish list. Now, I admit wish lists are in fact helpful for the gift-giver. Well, not only is it helpful, it practically does the job for them. In my mind, the heavy-lifting in getting someone a gift is the deciding what to get. From then on it takes no to little effort in actually getting (in extreme circumstances, the attainment of a gift can be hard too, like if I wanted to get someone the first issue of Superman, or a unicorn). So, I would consider wish lists to be a good thing when the giver and receiver aren’t very close. If the two consider themselves to be very good friends or particularly close, then it’s another story.

In gift-giving, if you’re getting a gift from someone you consider to be close, then you shouldn’t need a wish list. Not only because you might already know what they want, but wouldn’t you know what the receiver really wants better themselves. I mean, in the position of a receiver, aren’t the best gifts always the ones that are a surprise? Personally, if a close friend got me something I listed on Elfster, I would be happy in the sense that, yes, I now have what I said I wanted. But, really, anyone could have done what they did: read what I want, then get it. A complete stranger could have gotten me that gift, so the instance that my close friend gives me it s completely diminished. When I say that the best gifts are the ones that surprise you, I don’t mean that the fact that the gift surprises alone is important. It should surprise because it’s what they’re excited to have and always wanted, but never even realized it.

In movies, the director can take the audience through two doors. The first door leads to a place the audience doesn’t want to be (think Elektra). The second door leads to a place the audience does want to be; essentially, the director gives the audience exactly what they want (think Rocky IV). After these two, there is a hidden 3rd door, the door the audience knows nothing about. And, ultimately, it’s also the most fulfilling and enjoyable. The place the audience didn’t know they wanted to be. The film version of Watchmen is the perfect example of why the second door isn’t always what’s best. The audience got what they wanted in the director, Zack Snyder, know for the 300, which was extremely popular and well-received by comic fans with how faithful it was, which was made in the same vein as Sin City, another popular film recognized for it’s movie frame-to-comic panel faithfulness. Watchmen was made in the exact same way: completely faithful to the comic. And it wasn’t received that well at all. Think about Venom in Spider-man 3, the most sought after Spidey villain to be brought to the big-screen, so much so that the fans literally brought him there (producers forced him into Sam Raimi’s trilogy because of fan uproar). And what happened? Well, we got the worst Spider-Man entry when it could have potentially been the best (now that I’ve ranted about movies for a good amount I’ll bring it back to gifts :P)

This same philosophy should carry over to gift-giving, specifically between those that are close. When done right, it shows 1. The amount of effort and thought put into it by the giver and 2. That the giver really knows the receiver on a deeper level others can’t, thus illustrating the quality of their relationship.

P.S. making your gift works just as well in showing how sincere you are about your gift and the person you’re giving it too :)