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The work you grew into
Name a book, painting, film, or piece of music you first dismissed and later came to value. What changed in you that let you see it differently?
A second encounter can reveal how much of a judgment belonged to the person making it.
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A little context
At twenty you walked out of a film everyone praised, bored stiff. At forty you watch it again and are in tears by the end. The film has not changed. The question is what has.
Nearby questions
- Does knowing change it?A piece of writing moves you to tears. Then you learn a machine wrote every word. Does that change it?
- What would you still love if no one could ever see you loving it?Private pleasure, public approval, and the preferences that survive without an audience.
- Can something ugly be great art?Goya's black paintings, a scream in a symphony, a novel built to bore you. Some of the most admired work is hard to enjoy.
- The aura on your screenYou know the Sistine Chapel from images. If you went, what exactly would you be going for?
- The blade and the canvasIf you were angry enough at what it stood for, could you ever be right to put a blade through a painting?
