You're forgetting

by Leviathan , Hotel Zanzibar, Saturday, June 01, 2013, 21:53 (3990 days ago) @ Cody Miller

Isn't the point of art expression? By looking at the art, you see what was being expressed - the thinking, the idea the artist has. That's the whole POINT. You know the artist by his work, or else his work is not authentic (or not art).

Let's not get into the point of art because that's an endless, and likely unhealthy, debate. But whatever it is - expression, creation, communication, art for art's sake - it isn't a 1:1 ratio from the creator to the audience.

One story, one painting, doesn't have one interpretation or reaction, even if the author or academia tries to force it down your throat. Even if you think you got the same reaction as someone else, the uniqueness of your lives will likely create some subtle differences.

I can make a comic that forces some agenda, and then see somebody read it and get something completely new out of it I never saw. Because I can't be every person in the world and I can't have experienced all of their unique lives.

So the elements of my art are like variables. Sometimes the numbers I assign to them are the same numbers other people assign and they get what I'm trying to say (or express or present).

Sometimes people with different backgrounds and personalities and experiences assign different numbers and so their solution is going to also be different. Some of those people will take out things I never even imagined. Others might end up with a zero or negative number. But that doesn't mean the equation was necessarily flawed or false, it could just mean their numbers work better with other equations.

(And I believe trying to make the equation account for every variable will likely create something that works with NO variables.)

So as a creator, I wouldn't want to tell those people with different solutions they're wrong - I'd just be proud I was able to invoke anything that could impact or help their own equations.

As the receiver, I wouldn't want to tell people who got the solution differently they're wrong or have bad tastes. No, I could instead share with them and see how different inputs create different outcomes and gain wider views of the original equation.

And if I got a negative number from the author's creations? Maybe I shouldn't say the author is an idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about. Maybe it wasn't even meant for me. Maybe I'm just not in the position to understand it at this point. Maybe I never will. The world outside the cave is a wide one.