I have always maintained that a certain low-level snobbery is required to prevent the collapse of society.

My problem with this is that a canon is made up from the collective perspective of a bunch of self fashioned intellectual elitists who get to determine what are and aren't so called objectively good works that we should all read. It's almost like in their infinite wisdom they forget what the word subjectivity means. People can derive personal improvement, a deep understanding of the world around them, AND joy from a variety of works that fall outside of "the literary canon". They also tend to be older works that don't always carry modern contexts and diverse perspectives. As an English teacher, I hope we can just piss away this entire concept soon and allow for people to actually learn which means speaking to students in ways that they can contextualize with their lives experiences.

The irony of the background music not being Mozart during the "wake up at 4 am, listen to Mozart."

i feel like there’s better counter claims that you could’ve responded to, specifically on ur method of finding the best art. Usually websites like rym compile the “pinnacle” of genres which means that you wouldn’t really understand why they are a pinnacle unless you had more knowledge about its surrounding albums. For example, A Love Supreme, if someone previously uninterested in jazz jumps into that as their first introduction they are not going to pick up on what makes the album stand out in the world of jazz. Then, instead of exploring and refining your understanding of jazz, you would just jump to the next rym-core album and repeat the cycle. As a result, your experience of deep albums would be shallow and feel uneventful. I think there’s also more to be said about listener’s fatigue and the tastes of people who curate our art canons too. Overall nice video though, love ur content

I have friends who "enjoy things" and consider stuff "pretty good" not because they consume and don't ask questions, they just consume what they enjoy and are open to friends showing them stuff they otherwise wouldn't have cared to look at because they think consuming anything can be enriching in some capacity because they love art that much. For a while I thought "pretty good" was a level lower than good but really it's just another way of saying "good". They just don't get up and arms about the importance of art and classical stuff because they don't take everything so damn seriously, they wanna enjoy the 4,000 weeks they have left in this world after all.

"bad" art also has it's reasons to be read/listened/etc tho. When for example reading a "bad" story one can end up thinking of ways where it can be improved and maybe as an exercicse write one's own improved version which can become valuable lesson in creating art

I think the problem with this is that what becomes "some of the greatest of all time" is a problem of those media needing to have existed for long enough to build that presteige. The thing is is that a lot of those things we hold as the best of the best were far from well loved in their time, for example, Van Gogh is a very good example of this. Even the Mona Lisa, the most painting painting of all time, is another case of this.

My problem with this approach is I often find that people have a tendency to just parrot ideas to make themselves sound smart or because they don't take anything of real value from the media they interact with and want to make it seem like they do. This leads to another problem of not encouraging people to voice there differing interpretations for works of art and labeling the people who do as "haters" or "contrarians". You should be able to point out why you don't like aspects of or find faults with universally agreed upon classics but often when you bring up something like Goodfellas or Berserk you're just gonna hear the same talking points repeated at nauseum.

The problem I had by consuming only The Best is that I made a norm of what is exceptional, making it feel mundane, and stale. It also makes it harder to apreciate why a work is good due to both, a lack of perspective, and by not rating things by myself, relying that instead to the Lists of The Best.

Nope, I've tried looking at what people consider classics in (blank) community. It didn’t speak to me and that's fine cause stories are meant for so many different reasons.

The Beatles and Amy Winehouse have brought a lot of value to my life. The same goes for reading works of Nietzsche, Khant, Hagel among other philosophers, studying history, economics, geopolitics, quantum mechanics and so on. However, for some reason, three main things brought the most value to my life 1) The Beatles 2) Amy Winehouse 3) Elder Scrolls Franchise. Maybe I can't fully explain it, but these all shaped me, gave me profound insight and feelings. As well as near endless pleasure, that only really ends because I will one day😅

Altough your videos aren't in-depth, they are a splendid balance between learning/contemplation and entertainment. Much more thought-provoking than shortsscrolling.

Hard disagree. The most you can get out of any art is to engage it on its own terms to start. Learning and viewing art through other lenses is a useful skill but will always fall flat when it comes to actually understanding what you're engaging with. This means engaging with "bad art" honestly and with intent to understand ON ITS OWN TERMS. You dont **need** an understanding of the classics to do this. Also most "classics" reinforce the cultural hegemony in a way that is counter-productive to understanding art as a whole.

I don't gatekeep, I proselytize. I go out and spread the word of the thing i like. You are welcome to say "I'm good" or "tell me more." And I'll say, check out that gate over yonder. It already filters people out, but they're turning me away rather than me turning them away.

Inevitably, watching KZfaq long enough will provide the perfect balance of both modern day slop as well as classical slop. That being said, calling something "The very best" is subjective because I've read and been forced to do literary analysis of Shakespeare work, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello and thought the story was convoluted and boring, the characters static and uninteresting, and while the prose was well put together, the ending to all the stories were very unsatisfying and unmoving. Meanwhile modern animes with simplistic action sequences leave a deeper and more profound effect on me like dbz and baki since the message is far easier to digest lmao.

It's reasonable to do everything you say to *start* developing a taste of your own, but it's also as important to let go of IMDB, RYM for your own opinions and explore on your own what you're interested in. There are no eastern authors on that list for example. Explore cultures and genres and find what you like on your own. That hivemind mentality of liking what's already popular can only satisfy you so much into your journey of art discovery

It's important to point out that any website or collective of people will have their own biases as to what is the greatest art ever, such is the case with IMDb and RYM as you mentioned. And you'll see organizations stan particular artists or auteurs and shit on other ones when the ones dismissed are sometimes for petty reasons. So it's important to get a wide view of all artists out there and trying not to judge a book by its cover. Ultimately, I think it's best to go by artist rather than art. For example, instead of starting with Madvilliany, start with Operation Doomsday. Instead of starting with No Country, start with Blood Simple. For me, understanding their history and impact with the world today can feel like reliving those eras around those people. And ultimately, no matter how much art you consume, in my eyes, there may never be a "greatest" of all time. Never being a greatest artist, album, movie, etc; because then all art to come before and after that piece in that category will have to compare to that singular piece. Also you forgot to mention games, because tabletop and video games especially can be artistic. I think it's absolutely essential for future generations to experience artistic greats for themselves and to bring themselves out of the new for part of their artistic diet. Hell, I have a friend who is a deep fan of today's Hollywood mainstream of superheroes and stan-ing actors, but also loves cryptic and vague horror. Here's hoping Jordan Peele will be their gateway drug.

I think about this a lot. I often feel excluded because I tend not to like pop culture things. Consuming high value content surely provides me more satisfaction but I also feel like I’m missing something like references or shared experiences

Another sensational one! it makes me happy that you produce this content, your editing and the theme of the video go together so well and it really makes me finish watching thinking about what to do with the rest of my time. Congrats!

I agree with a lot of your takes in this, however I find it hard to find reliable sources of classics for works outside the Western focus (like works from art revolutions of Asia or Africa) and considering how Eurocentric the English speaking view is (obviously) it’s hard to rely on what’s popular to find works that would expand my view of the human experience in non Indo-European languages. Additionally it would be foolish to say that there isn’t any or that many works that would be considered masterpieces from places outside Europe. I’m not trying to pick a fight, I’m just wondering about the lack of focus outside of European works, whether that’s just due to the problems with translation or otherwise.

ye thats too complicated for me ill just refrain from consuming any form of art on purpose.

An interesting point, to be sure. Nevertheless, I wonder about the validity of such thinking. The argument that life is short and should be spent diving into the best art possible, is valid. However, the same argument can also be used to sustain the opposite view, i.e. that life should be spent enjoying whatever brings you the most dopamine. Exclusively consuming media that 'enhances' your life, eventually leads to your death as well, and arguably, you wouldn't have enjoyed to the fullest. Of course, whatever 'enjoying to fullest' means is entirely subjective, and certainly not only tied to the consumption of media, although nowadays that does form a large part of it. I listen to classical music, but I would never dare claim that my time is better spent doing that than by listening to pop, jazz, rock or by doing anything else. It doesn't provide a huge amount of entertainment, not when compared to scrolling around on the internet. There certainly are emotions to be explored, but I rarely become so engrossed in the music that I feel much 'enriched' afterwards. One could make the claim that this is a 'me' problem, but by doing so one admits that 'high' art is, after all, subjective, thus proving that consuming such art isn't a good idea for everyone.

But can't a mediocre or even bad piece inspire or move somone, whilst a so called eye opening classic bores them. Me and my brother really enjoyed the Star Wars sequel trilogy whilst I thought Andor was okay.

I should have done something else instead of watching this video

dude... this is something ive been thinking about for a long time, but couldnt quite put words to until you said it. thanks bro.

Here’s the problem, sure, low level product or art is clearly lesser, and we likely shouldn’t consume too much of it, that being said, who is to say what true art is moving-or-has a higher level of improving your life, psychological or whatever. You can say Scorsese is one of the greatest living directors, while I often think his work is drole compared to the likes of Tarkovsky, and you may think conversely to me, and that’s fine. Who’s to say something like a hidden novel written by a lesser known polish fellow is less enriching than something like The Sun also Rises which I found to be incredibly dry (even if it was purposeful, sure) and souless? Everyone has cultivated different taste and to make a hit piece on “modern art” at large is silly at best and turning a blind eye at worst

There are so many assumptions in this that make sense, including the glaring one that anyone can determine what a work that will resonate deeply with them is before they read it. Many people read "the classics" and are bored to tears, which is hardly a recipe for emotional self-discovery. Meanwhile, they may find epiphanies in YA. Beyond this, this perspective ignores the social aspect of art, and promotes a solipsistic approach to art appreciation that cares nothing for being able to discuss popular art with friends (including conversations that bash the art). I would argue that an enthusiastic conversation with a friend about why a marvel movie is bad is more likely to strike upon a thought that reveals something interesting about what makes art good for the people in the conversation than is a slog through Chaucer. Something being hard to access doesn't mean that it will be good once you make the effort, and especially the literary cannon has been determined by aristocrats and politics for centuries. The weak form of this video is ultimately fine I guess, but the strong form of this argument feels pretty shortsighted.

You experience only the best constantly, it becomes mundane. Experience BAD or BORING art to truly appreciate the best

I personally think that what is good or bad is from the perspective of the consumer I have so many video games or movies that I like even though they are objectively seen as bad I still enjoy them because they just hit the spot for me I think that every one should consume whatever they want no matter if it is seen as bad or good by the wide majority of people because we don't know what the person feels while consuming media this is the reason why I don't care if the media they consume is objectively good or not I care about the feeling and memories the person connect with that content

I've always struggled to read books that aren't adventure or philosophy related. I think getting out to create new memorable experiences is more fulfilling than reading. I guess some people prefer sitting and reading War And Peace. But I prefer to Ski, Mountain Bike, hike etc..

hey pretty good format, casual explaining on an intresting topic, not too serious, not too shallow. great vid

This feels at least partly like satire and I hope I’m right 😅

As a Homestuck, I can confirm consuming content is basically selling your soul and wasting your time

Oh man. I've been this rabbithole for years when it comes to music. I always strive towards finding that piece of work that enhances my musicial knowledge and taste, but I always end up spending too much time considering what album I should listen because there simply is so much to choose from. Instead I spend time on online forums asking questions to gather info about what album or music I just might be looking for. When you start listening it is easy to expand your knowledge and taste because you haven't listened to the classics yet, but after a while you'll just keep on looking and looking for the next piece in your puzzle. This video sums that up perfectly.

Omg, this video actually IS life - changing for me in a certain way. You talk about some topics from a very specific point of view, which casually is so relatable to me. And why is this life-changing? it could be just a simple coincidence. I can give you that. But just by the fact that these specific thoughts on art are so SO present in my daily life, that is what amazes me the most. It is actually kind of weird to find someone who thinks in such a similar way like you. Thanks for the video, keep It up!! You dont always know if someone could be inspired by what you do Take care!❤️ (sorry for my english, not my first language)

great video, it's always a dilemma for me to choose between letting people enjoy things or to obnoxiously try to widen their horizon

I like dedicating time to listen some good albums, both classics and new things i don't usually listen. I ended up discovering some really good things. Finding new music is always an incredible activity to do.

This idea will just bounce back and forth in culture. Wait 10 years, no 5, no 2, and you’ll be saying “just let people enjoy things”

Man, even before watching this i knew that there was plenty of classic media that I've been missing out on. I even had a list of the best albums, movies, shows and books i wanted to check out but never really got a chance to. But after watching this + your "how much time do we really have?" video, i realized that if I don't get started quickly, I will die before the witnessing the greatest pieces of art in human history. Thanks Duncan 👍

When that guy told me to read Jane austin I’m like no thanks. I’ll continue to watch the worst kaju movies ever made and be fulfilled in those moments instead of hate existing

Im rambling here don’t mind me lol I really like that you showed those albums because I can personally say that music has transformed me into a different person. It allows me to feel a transcendence that I never thought existed. I remember first finding artists in high school like Venetian Snares, Aphex Twin, Autechre, Battles, and Oneohtrix Point Never for the first time and feeling this excitement within my mind, such colorful moods and feelings that were indescribable when I listened. Nevertheless, I still feel guilty sometimes about my tastes because I don’t want to come off as some Pitchfork loser because I like Animal Collective or something. I do understand why these bands are talked about so frequently though. You can feel their ideas and get lost in their world that can leave you at a loss for words

The last line of the video made me laugh a lot. It happened so fast, ended so soon, and nothing came after it. Basically, it had the same effect on me as those perfectly cut scream videos.

Considering my usual revulsion to this mindset, I'm impressed at how you were able to make a case for it. I'm not fully sold, primarily because I've lost track of how many classic works of art were hated in their time only to be reevaluated later, but I've been getting much more open to and interested in exploring "the greats" recently, so there's that.

Combatting one form of conformity with another. I know that is a very cynical assessment of this method of experiencing art in the most effective way possible for quality vs time. But hear me out. If you only experience art as curated by its ratings, your personal taste will revolve around a big fat “average” of other people’s taste overall. And so while you will objectively experience the most high quality works as according to the general consensus (which by no means is an unreliable metric JUST MAKING THAT CLEAR) you will only be experiencing that art because you were advised to by other people’s opinions. This will largely render the subjectivity of your art appreciation down to art that most other people appreciate. This is now where my opinion is inserted. Art can and should be appreciated at an individual level for reasons that are meaningful to you in particular. This will actually sometimes mean you will find personal enjoyment in art that goes against the grain of what other people will consider high quality. You may not always be spending your time “enriching” yourself with maximum efficiency, but you will experience a very dynamic and broad palette that will enrich you to deeper depths than accepting the status quo of what makes art “good.” There are many works of art that are currently broadly accepted as one of the best that were largely unpopular or unrecognized in their day. With the vast amount of information being created each day, you can and will find things that will enrich your life that are not and never will be popular. But having experienced that art, you would have still been enriched. In this day and age where people are keen on efficiency, sometimes we “throw the baby out with the bath water.”

a guy cleaning a rug is a classic

This assumes people like those classics because they're good and not because it's a signal of social status. If everyone did it, you could no longer feel superior to other people. And you wouldn't want that, would you? In any case, you might as well say why deal with art in any way? Wouldn't the opertunity cost of watching a fake story detract from learning about the real world? Isn't that far more uplifting than fake people crying about fake problems? Why learn about Shakespeare at all when most of us don't understand Newton all that well?

Love the video and I really resonated with it, though I tend to take this philosophy a bit further on the personal end. I don't even rely on lists and I rarely follow up on other's suggestions after reading the summary. For movies, shows, and books I check the synopses and judge if I really will get something out of it or if it is worth getting into. For music I just leave it up to chance, because I play on repeat anyway and by the time I get bored I usually have found new genres that I want to explore. I feel that if I spend too much time on other's suggestions, I'll never have time to explore my own interests. I have my own lists, be it a thought-provoking documentary on the human condition or a kawaii-bass cringe anime song. Because everything is meaningless in the grand scale, I'll define meaning on my own. Optimistic Nihilism FTW. Though admittedly it has led to me feeling out of place often as I am far removed from pop culture, it also makes me quirky and interesting to the people who know me and has led to me forming better relationships with people who genuinely understand me.

The whole enrich your life argument was pretty shallow... Also a lot of things about classic works keep being echoed and replicated in newer media.

The video's content does not match up with the title. The title says we shouldn't let people enjoy things, but the video just says that you should try consuming a variety of content.

You had me 'till you suggested that the highest-rated is a good indicator of 'best'. Quality is inversely proportional to popularity. Top-40 songs being the most obvious example.

I'm older, and I'm here to say that I dislike, even hate, a lot of media. The older I get, the more media--whether lauded or not--I reject. It's not intentional. I see old patterns repeating, becoming dull. I read Plato and Descartes, watched The Godfather and Yojimbo, listened to The Velvet Underground and so on. It didn't make me happier, more enriched, or moral. If I could trade all that time for something right now, I'd trade it for time with loved ones and seeing the world. Being present. Enjoying just having the time to use in a way that wasn't just about my self.

It really annoys me when my roommates and I try to pick a movie to watch, and it ends up being some cookie-cutter Netflix comedy. I know that they haven't seen anything by Scorsese, and it just feels like a waste. Seems harmless but you can feel the opportunity cost.

You're 100% right about people being too snobbish about only consuming art from 20-40 years before they were born. This happens in hip hop spaces a lot where people swear the only good music worth listeing to only came from 91-99. There are modern, transendental works of art being made today that are pushing mediums forward that we need to promote more

I agree with you in most of the video, that we should read, watch and listen to classics, but I have two provocations to make. First, that "art today is being made only for consumption", and yes, it is being made for consumption, there is no art without patrons. The works that we call classics also served a purpose, including a political one and this will always happen, we cannot analyze art from an idealistic perspective, art, like all things, is inserted in a historical time that has its own particularities. The second tease would be, isn't it as bad as just watching mediocre fun movies that are being made today (like the Marvel movies) and just consuming and thinking about classic westerns? Like, the western is so young if we think about it, how many incredible works do we have in Asia and Africa for example? What about works from socialist countries that had a completely different way of seeing the world? I hope you can understand me well, my English is not so good, I'm from Brazil.

Great video! But would really appreciate it if you could include the sources in the video description, would love to access the rest of the interview with Harold Bloom

I get the point about engaging with contemporary art and literature, but I agree with Henry Thoreau who said,of the classics: “Any man will go considerably out of his way to pick up a silver dollar; but here are golden words, which the wisest men of antiquity have uttered, and whose worth the wise of every succeeding age have assured us of; and yet we learn to read only as far as Easy Reading, the primers and classbooks, and when we leave school, the Little Reading, and story books, which are for boys and beginners; and our reading, our conversation and thinking, are all on a very low level, worthy only of pygmies and manikins.”

On music, I would like you to share your opinions/rating of Miracle Musical’s “Hawaii part 2” if that’s okay?

I agree with you on this, but I have to add that picking the art you choose to appreciate depends a lot on where you are. Try to go local, find people in your cultural and geographical sphere to help guide you at the beginning and start a process of discovery from there and allow yourself to accommodate tastes foreign to you. The western canon is as separate from my part of the world as my culture's canon might be from yours. TL;DR I agree that a little snobbery goes a long way, but try not to get bogged down with secondhand opinions and form a canon of your own over time.

I don’t believe it! I lived across the street from Harold bloom and my dad was a publishing consultant of his; his wife Gene Bloom baked cupcakes for my and my sisters birthdays every year. This is New Haven Connecticut, on the Yale campus during the 2000s. I’m afraid Harold passed a while ago and Gene just a few years ago. Their memory is very important to me and my family and it’s so crazy just seeing him pop in a KZfaq video

I was convinced by the first 2 minutes and decided to stop watching the video to instead read more valuable stuff

I love this!! Thank you

I agree with this, however, it's worth noting that since what kind of content and art would best benefit someone changes according to each individual, there's no guaranteed formula for finding those works, such as looking at the classics.

One other way to get deeper into classics is looking deeper into the genres you enjoy. You like horror? Watch some classic horror movies like Exorcism or read Edgar Allan Poe. Enjoy electronic? Look deeper into the first electronic pieces and realise how many times Popcorn has been sampled. Also for elitists it's great to try and enjoy some modern stuff, there's a lot of great modern movies and music to enjoy, something revolutionary comes out every year.

You should explore the very best humanity has to offer but I think in general it's more important for people to run their personal edges and discover new, worthwhile things for themselves. If you have a personal interest in organic chemistry let's say, nothing should stop you from going to the library and cracking open a textbook. If you don't know anything about Native American art history but you find it interesting, then go on the internet and learn. If you heard Tenent was good, watch it. We have all the tools we need to explore the richness of life in a way that's more accessible to the average person than ever before. It's about encouraging others to explore that richness in their own way rather than letting them just blindly float in their own little corner of the media ocean. It's a cross between cultivating good taste and respecting your own intelligence.

3:34 Ayo, W having King Crimson and Daft Punk on there lmao

The Shawshank Redemption is a great movie but it didn't """"enhance"""" my life in anyway :/

The most close minded individuals are the ones who tell you never to criticize what they like.

made me spit out my drink with the joy division rollercoaster ffs

"(Marvel movies) isn't the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being." "Watching a Marvel movie, looking at the impressive special effects, laughing at the quips and getting chills from watching you favorite character can all be very fun. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a theme park." ...Okay, but hear me out: What about Thor's struggle with his own ego and self-worth? What about Bruce Banner/the Hulk's epic multi-movie quest for emotional stability and balance between his two personalities? Tony Stark's severe PTSD changing the course of the entire franchise? Spider-Man being a kid in way over his head and having to grow up much too fast? The sheer lasting impact of heroes dying? _Loki,_ for crying out loud. Hell, I personally found Thanos's entire philosophy to be fundamentally flawed to the point of genuine stupidity, but it sure got people talking about (somewhat crude) moral philosophy. Now I'm not saying the MCU is high art or anything, but I have to disagree with the assertion that they don't "convey emotional, psychological experiences." That's not the primary appeal, perhaps, but they're there. Comparing those stories to theme parks seems disingenuous since theme parks don't typically ask you to contemplate questions of morality, mortality, mental health, and the nature of heroism. (Although, perhaps they should.) I'm just asking, where do you draw the line? How much does a work have to prioritize deeper themes about the human condition over fun and spectacle to qualify as "proper" art? Is the spectacle itself a problem? I think we should be careful not to think about it like that, because that's regressive and unhelpful when trying to evaluate art. If conveying meaningful emotional and psychological experiences to the viewer is the main qualification, then I could argue that Star Wars is a more important work of art to me personally than those of Shakespeare. Because while I have enjoyed Shakespeare, Star Wars has actually has taught me things that influenced my way of thinking and profoundly changed the way I live my life.

Fantastic fantastic video, watched three times in one day.

We need the bad ones to really appreciate the good ones.

This video has made me question all of my life

@0:31 *Thirty Million songs and yet they can't find me ONE thrash metal album that supersedes Rust In Peace*

just a reminder, though, that you can create your own canon through the combination of the ones that already exist. It's possible that there's some classics that you read watch or listen to that for a some reason you don't understand at the time that you experience them or they just doesn't resonate with you at all due to their themes, message or morals and that's fine, but they might be other that do. the best thing to build a equal balance between your preferences and what's generally praised by creating some rules and actual reasons to see beauty in them. I conclusion, pay attention in literature class or just ask for recommendation to your parents, but don't be embarrased to be passionated about what gives you comfort.

After this video, I think this channel deserves some Adorno analysis on popular music and serialism.

Bro i love your videos. And your style is like britmonke. And to my surprise the guy happens to comment here lol

idk if anyone has already said this but there is a counterargument to this that’s like if there are pieces of media that people just aren’t really talking about and you personally might not really like the most acclaimed stuff when compared to some others which aren’t as well known, I think this applies more to music or art and it sometimes sucks finding them because there can be so much that just isn’t as good and in the case of music you might run into things that look good or generic but don’t really fit their cover, idk just wanted to leave this comment

This video is actually an undercover Berserk recommendation, isn't it?

5:25-5:32 This is where you're wrong.

I definitely agree with your points in the video. It seems that everything is now more or less products to be consumed, and sadly that's for music and movies as well. Unless we want to experience the greatest and search further based on what we want to see and feel, we won't get satisfaction from these forms of media. On another note, everyone go listen to "In the Court of the Crimson King" , it's phenomenal.

This is good I agree yes great indeed

What is honestly great about Shakespeare? What can we learn from his books? Nothing significant for me

I'm so glad there is In rainbows by radiohead in the "collection of the best albums" because it truly is amongst the best

i have two problems with this. -what's transformative varies from person to person. I once read an owl house fanfic that was genuinely more transformative then any shakespeare, george orwell or whatever that they shoved down my throat in school. doesn't mean I'm gonna get up on my soapbox and say anyone who reads anything while not having read that is wasting their life. -you're gonna die anyway, and all the knowledge you've obtained will be for naught, regardless of whether you believe you'll go to heaven, hell or nowhere at all. So try having fun if you're still able. Sure, it's important to work on society and on ourselves but reading silly romance novels every once in a while won't cause society to suddently collapse into a mess of nothing but people seeking to endlessly please themselves.

Nice video, the ironic elitist schedule to experience the most refined media in a day was especially funny

For those reading, ignore the bullsh!t in the video. Stick to the middle ground between mainstream and elite and think for yourself people, you don't need a corprate machine or a bunch of socially oblivious hipster NPCs telling you how to live, pick the best of both sides of your liking and own it!

I think that resting your brain on medium quality media allows you to rest so that when you come across more meaningful work you can fully process the depth of art. I think about it like I think about food - specifically sugar - you loose your sensitivity to sweet when you eat a typical American diet... when you eat a diverse range of foods you get more pleasure from eating desert. Admittedly, it's not a perfect analogy.

Dude. The Discord bloop made my heart stop!

You *should* let people enjoy things, but it's also good (and important) to encourage them to expand their horizons, too.

It's really satisfying to see another Earl Sweatshirt enjoyer

I'm genuinely happy shit art exists, it's a great teaching tool to understand the beauty of amazing works and your appreciation for it will grow - while I get as frustrated as the next guy when the newest ubisoft open world title drops, i'll enjoy a masterpiece even more afterwards - this goes for any artform

With this much random bullshit flying all over the place you'd expect an artistic revolution but unless you mean gross 18+ stuff we're sadly having the saddest cambrian explosion ever

this intro did not let me enjoy things

Miss the days where we used to just watch movies on dvd

i checked my discord at 0:03 💀

Whether looking through the highest rated works is better than getting recommendations from an algorithm depends on how good the algorithm is and what it's optimized for. Sadly engagement on social media doesn't correlate very well with soul-moving reflection so their algorithms aren't that, but it is definitely possible to construct a personalized algorithm that does better than the majority opinion.

Nice one

I've been planning on watching Schindler's List for the first time and putting it off, not because I'm afraid it'll move me, I'm down for my emotions being wretched a bit, but because I'm afraid it won't. I have impaired vision/hearing/audio processing and probably other issues and I've tried watching it before only to just feel like I wasn't tracking things or getting into it. I'm gonna try watching it with audio description next time but I'm like . . . what if I still have trouble getting through it? I feel like it's gonna be like trouble shooting. Re-watching the move up the point I realize I get lost, etc. I have trouble connecting to movies in general. And music, even moreso. There is so much I just don't connect to. And I don't see the value in just trying to see what the hype is all about. I am a picky snob, but don't hold normal standards of what's great to high value. I want something I believe will reasonate with me as an individual. This could be an interesting fan fiction or youtube video essay. It probably won't be a movie or music album of any kind.

The nod to (American psycho) bit had me fuckin laughing !

Respectful hard disagree with the premise of this video, or at least bloom's take. Aristotle preached that no one could have a fully civilized or "human" existence without the specific experience of the oikos (Greek city state or polis society) even while Alexander would make that idea inconceivable within Aristotle's lifetime. Just because a well spoken person makes an appeal to conservative social norms doesn't mean those norms have any more value than behaviors they criticize. Furthermore, we are facing a global legitimacy crisis as our meritocratic institutions lose credibility, including academia. Frankly, the position that we plebs haven't gotten our souls uplifted by Proust as a social negative is laughable, considering that those who read Proust usually find themselves too educated and valuable to do manual labor and so read or teach instead. This clip of bloom embodies the self-validating class of elites who have gotten every world historical moment wrong for the past 40 years.