Blog/2024-02-26/Refinement
A while back I was thinking about the role that critics play. It's actually somewhat important, associating and spotting the subtleties in art so that it doesn't go missed by those of us who don't have all that state in our head. I actually really appreciate that. But there's a thing with things where they slowly iterate themselves into a min-maxed version of itself, its Telos, if you will.
In the case of critics, they slowly evolve into attempting art of their own through their criticism. Their works become more and more inscrutable as they seek to outdo other critics, and they often see things that don't exist in their effort to be unique.
But it also happens to everything else. One time I went looking for advice on which double-edge razor to buy and did the normal thing and googled "double edge razor reddit". But the advice there is patently insane. You have to make shaving your entire being. Folks there will talk about buying the right horse-hair brush and the right cream to get the right kind of foam. I suppose it's cool that the Internet truly enables sub-cultures, but this is the telos of all sub-cultures: specialized equipment collection.
An interesting twist on that is the fact that they also have tastes for the most obscure stuff that's fallen out of general fashion. If you've ever had a whiff of YSL Kouros, you'll know that it's not something you'd wear these days. It's very musky and very strong. One drop is said to kill a beagle at 1.3 km. But it's heavily recommended on the reddits as a "classic power-fougere". If I ever see something that is described as a power-fougere, I am going to get the hell out of there.
Because of all this, I spent a long time looking for the Wirecutter of art: the middle of the road source that can explain to a middle of the road person all the subtleties of some piece. Well, I haven't had much luck with ChatGPT-4 with photos of art, but if they're named famous works, it can at least summarize and trace pathways of art history quite well. So there's that!
