What is the subtextual message of wrestling? What greater point of the human condition does it point to?
Saying fast food isn’t haute cuisine isn’t being close-minded, it’s being accurate. Same shit applies here.
You aren’t being open minded, you’re lacking discernment.
And again, this isn’t even a value assessment. I’m not going to lie, I personally think wrestling is stupid, but I’m not insulting it by calling it kitsch. We all love tons of things that are kitsch; kitsch is not a negative. It’s just not art, holy fucking shit, people.
Art is a word with so many different but overlapping definitions that it’s honestly not a very useful word, but the ones that rely on Importance™️ or Beauty™️ are the dumbest ones. Mainly because who are you to decide what’s Important™️? More often than not it just boils down to “stuff rich white Europeans like.”
It just has the same energy as Roger Ebert’s weird essay about how video games can’t possibly be art. Do you also not think games, movies, tv, plays, dances, etc are not art?
Hopefully you know that “pro wrestling” is an incredibly broad term, and if you’re only thinking about WWE, you’re only getting a piece of the picture. But even beyond that, even if every single CURRENT production of pro wrestling was actually this “kitche” term that you describe, can you maybe see the absurdity in thinking that it’s literally impossible for it to be art going forward? You can’t imagine a compelling narrative that also includes some people doing over-the-top gymnastics on top of each other?
I guess… Why is it important to broadly dismiss an entire genre of performance as “not art”? Wouldn’t you rather describe your view as “so far what I’ve seen hasn’t been art to me, and I don’t really care to investigate further” and leave it at that?
What is the subtextual message of wrestling? What greater point of the human condition does it point to?
Saying fast food isn’t haute cuisine isn’t being close-minded, it’s being accurate. Same shit applies here.
You aren’t being open minded, you’re lacking discernment.
And again, this isn’t even a value assessment. I’m not going to lie, I personally think wrestling is stupid, but I’m not insulting it by calling it kitsch. We all love tons of things that are kitsch; kitsch is not a negative. It’s just not art, holy fucking shit, people.
Art is a word with so many different but overlapping definitions that it’s honestly not a very useful word, but the ones that rely on Importance™️ or Beauty™️ are the dumbest ones. Mainly because who are you to decide what’s Important™️? More often than not it just boils down to “stuff rich white Europeans like.”
It just has the same energy as Roger Ebert’s weird essay about how video games can’t possibly be art. Do you also not think games, movies, tv, plays, dances, etc are not art?
Hopefully you know that “pro wrestling” is an incredibly broad term, and if you’re only thinking about WWE, you’re only getting a piece of the picture. But even beyond that, even if every single CURRENT production of pro wrestling was actually this “kitche” term that you describe, can you maybe see the absurdity in thinking that it’s literally impossible for it to be art going forward? You can’t imagine a compelling narrative that also includes some people doing over-the-top gymnastics on top of each other?
I guess… Why is it important to broadly dismiss an entire genre of performance as “not art”? Wouldn’t you rather describe your view as “so far what I’ve seen hasn’t been art to me, and I don’t really care to investigate further” and leave it at that?