Subjectivity & Seafood

I pose to you a contradictions in my own way of thinking.


SUBJETIVITY

I don't like American Idol. I don't watch it. I can't stand it.

People think taste is subjective. Sometimes you hear opinions such as this:
“American Idol sucks.”

But logically, if I don’t personally like American Idol, knowing full well that BILLIONS of people do, it’s an indication that I might be in the minority. The issue there is that I'm not afraid to admit it, whereas some or most people who don't like it are.

Yet no one ever says, “I don’t enjoy American Idol because, evidently, there’s something disturbingly abnormal about my brain. Although scientists say human and chimp DNA only differs by 2%, with me, it’s probably a lot less.”

We’re funny that way. We assume our personal preferences are the standard by which all art should be judged. I think the best way to judge the quality of art is by how well the artist achieves his objectives, whatever those might be.

Take the Garfield comic strip. The creator set out years ago to create a massively popular comic strip. That was the goal of his art. He has succeeded for decades. When art achieves its goal, it has to be considered great. Sure, Garfield doesn’t make you dance or cry or fall in love. It doesn’t even amuse most adult males.

So what? You can’t judge art against objectives it never held. If you judge it against the standard it seeks to achieve, it’s every bit the equal of the Mona Lisa. Likewise for the movie Borat and South Park.

Now consider the movie Titanic. It was a huge commercial success, but I have a hard time imagining Cameron's artistic goal was to make the viewers feel as if someone put their dogs to sleep. Yet that’s what it did. As a business venture, Titanic was brilliant. It sold a lot of tickets. From the perspective of art, I highly doubt the artist’s objectives and the result lined up, unless Cameron's a sadist, which I also highly doubt.

That’s how I want to judge things, that's how I DO judge MOST things. To me, saying that I don't personally like something like American Idol in lieu of saying that it sucks implies quite a bit of maturity. But my mileage varies on this.



For example...



SEAFOOD

Sometimes subjectivity is overwhelmed by personal taste and preference. For me, at least, and I'd imagine for everyone.

So here's a contradiction for me. Everyone knows that I'm a huge, picky eater. So today, I'm going isolate one of the food groups that I hate and tell you why it's disgusting.

Seafood. It's foul and it's gross, and the smell of it makes me gag. In other words, I think it's disgusting.

Obviously, like above, I'm in the minority. And I know that. But I can't give any reason why I don't like it when asked other than "it's disgusting". Not because I don't want to, because I can't, even while FULLY aware that WAY more people in the world like seafood than the people who don't.

But I hate seafood like an albino hates a sunburn, and while I can see that I'm crazy for feeling this way in light of all the people who love seafood, and all the good it does for the body, seafood makes me want to suggest that sanity is relative. When I go past the fish market in the grocers, or someone is chowing down in my vicinity, I smell a smell that I know everybody else detects too, and it's called fishiness. People say, " I love seafood, but not the stuff that's too fishy".

Yeah, me too. I love beef, but not the stuff that's too beefy. Yeah, that sounds REAL smart. Could I possibly have the wrong fucking animal on my plate?

Fishiness is the very essence of seafood, so if you don't like fishiness, don't eat fish. One could call up the example of spiciness as a counter-example, but when a dish is spicy, spiciness isn't the main characteristic of the dish, unlike seafood, where fishiness is the flavor (unless of course you're a spiciness freak, and in that case, you know you're in the minority). That vile smell of seafood is one of nature's ways of protecting our sea creatures from being eaten, much like a stinkbug produces an odor to ward off predators.

And speaking of bugs, no, I don't like shrimp or lobster or crab either. Why not toss a grasshopper or two on your plate the next time you're eating that stuff? Crustaceans are fundamentally underwater bugs.

Somebody had this quote on their page, and I feel it's relevant to my thinking on THIS issue:
"It is no measure of sanity to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society"
- Krishnamurti



THE BOTTOM LINE

Contradictory, no?

I can say I don't like American Idol without saying it sucks.

Yet I can't say that I don't like seafood without giving the reason that it's disgusting and wondering how anyone can like it.

I'm not sure where I was trying to go with this. It's interesting to think about though, no? I'm sure this isn't just me, I'm sure there are 100 people with their own 2 or more things, one they can dislike but admit it's popular even though they're just not into it, and some other things that they just can't see how anyone likes.

Anyways, there's your introspection for the day. Choke on it.



The Season 8 Finale starts on Tuesday for next week (which I'm enjoying the comment board speculation about, by the way) and I don't know if I'll be writing before then. I'll try to do it once more since I'm taking some months off afterwards, but if not, I'll see you then. I put the trailer on the main menu above the crew listing and the counter, in case you didn't notice.

You're welcome.

God Bless,
B.@.D