On 30/8/05 8:54 PM, "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Yes, but what about the composition and root of that 'informed'? And what
> about the way the term informed gives authority and then acts in the world in
> a way which is far from subjective? And I don't want to sound flippant, but
> what about the unconscious?
Where was I suggesting that none of these things play into subjective taste?
(By "informed", I meant someone whose taste is inflected by reading and
thinking about a wide range of writing). I wasn't quite wanting to get into
the whole question of formation of taste. But it seems to me a little like
that old nature/nurture argument: some things (education, socio-economic
position, gender maybe and so on) are going to be shaping forces. But any
individual will react to these shaping forces in different and often
unpredictable ways. Some will lock quietly into conventions, others will
take those conventions and aggressively build a self around them, others
still will react against them, others will look outside them for other
principles to base an aesthetic on ...
I think we agree on uncertainty. Yes; I for one am always looking for
commonalities, elective affinities if you like (I was always a reconstructed
Romantic, in an awfully post modern way, of course); but my background as an
emigrant means that I know quite profoundly that one can never assume it.
Best
A
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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