Forks and Knives

I’m not quite sure how I feel about the Three Uses of The Knife excerpt. My gut reaction to it isn’t very favorable to be honest. I disagree with the notion that art is simply a product to delight, that it is be all end all mission of art. I also wouldn’t say that’s mission is to change or teach as the excerpt would suggest. Art strikes a delicate balance of being in the middle. If it strays too far one way or the other you lose the ability to reach wide audience. For example, The Michael Bay Transformers or James Cameron’s AVATAR could fall on the pure delight side of the spectrum but its visuals lack from the backing of a strong story. In the case of AVATAR, beautiful visuals very few movies have matched the digital creation of Pandora. It delights the eye but the starves without a cohesive story to back the delightful art. AVATAR also suffers because its story also delves too much on the change/teach side. Cameron clearly had a story to tell but the way in which he told it came off as a little preachy. Art that is too preachy can lose audiences; they want a message but a message that isn’t upfront or “in their face.”

            I think the goal for artists is too simply make art that delights them personally. If they have a particular outlook or opinion that is shared through that art that evokes a delight in others than that is a blessing for the artist.