issue218

hlzhang431UID: 2297648

ISSUE218 - "In order for any work of art-whether film, literature, sculpture, or a song-to have merit, it must be understandable to most people."

Must arts-whether film, literature, sculpture, or a song-be understandable to most people to have merit? The author believes so, although I do not agree. In my opinion, the key factor which determines the merit a piece of art possesses is not the number of people who can understand or appreciate it, but its artistic value to be judged from artistic angle.

To begin with, it is almost impossible for any piece of art to be completely understandable by all the people in that different people have different tastes in their appreciation toward arts and people's culture backgrounds as well as personal experiences prevent them from comprehending the connotations of certain arts. In a society where most people are poorly educated or even uneducated, arts might be a luxury that most people either have no access to or simply cannot appreciate them. Besides, merits of great arts often take time to be understood, even for those insiders. During the periods without appreciation, their merit exist all the same, just not visible for in most eyes. That is why some masterpieces were often rejected by people during their early periods.

Moreover, the number of people who appreciate one kind of art could only represent the popularity rather than the corresponding value of the art type. Commonsense tells us that popular arts actually differ a lot from arts that have real merit. For this, we need look no further other than the soap operas broadcasting on our television, which might be easily understood by most people. However, they are used merely for amusement and would be easily forgotten sooner or later for the simple reason that they lack the true values that most masterpieces would have. Therefore, if more emphasis has been laid on to ensure that arts could be completely understandable to common people, and then they might be sacrificing their innate value to cater the populace. On the other hand, some masterpieces, like the Mona Lisa's Smile, the Statue of Liberty, etc., possess great merits even if they might not be fully understandable to most people. Simply put it, arts that are popular to people do not necessarily have true merits.

Finally, I concede that arts that have great merits tend to bring pleasure to people and give them an impetus to their mental life, but not all people could understand such melodious feelings due to diverse cultural backgrounds of people. More importantly, arts are always the realization of the inspiration or innate feelings of artists and whether arts possess merits or not are not judged by whether they could be fully understandable to most people but by critics from a professional perspective regarding whether they could successfully express the emotional feelings of the artists.

In a word, it is totally unfair to judge arts from whether they could be understandable to most people. And the true values of arts lie in whether they could effectively express the emotional feelings of the artists and bring pleasure to those who appreciate them.

jennetrjUID: 2275453

ISSUE218 - "In order for any work of art-whether film, literature, sculpture, or a song-to have merit, it must be understandable to most people."

Must arts-whether film, literature, sculpture, or a song-be understandable to most people to have merit? The author believes so, although I do not agree. In my opinion, the key factor which determines the merit a piece of art possesses is not the number of people who can understand or appreciate it, but its artistic value to be judged from artistic angle. [完全否定的观点，并对观点进行扩展，语言精炼，观点清晰]

To begin with, it is almost impossible for any piece of art to be completely understandable by all the people in that different people have different tastes in their appreciation toward arts [艺术品味好恶与对作品的理解好像有点距离]and people's culture backgrounds as well as personal experiences prevent them from comprehending the connotations of certain arts. In a society where most people are poorly educated or even uneducated, arts might be a luxury that most people either have no access to or simply cannot appreciate them. Besides, merits of great arts often take time to be understood, even for those insiders. During the periods without appreciation, their merit exist all the same, just not visible for in most eyes. That is why some masterpieces were often rejected by people during their early periods.

Moreover, the number of people who appreciate one kind of art could only represent the popularity rather than the corresponding value of the art type. Commonsense tells us that popular arts actually differ a lot from arts that have real merit. For this, we need look no further other than the soap operas broadcasting on our television, which might be easily understood by most people. However, they are used merely for amusement and would be easily forgotten sooner or later for the simple reason that they lack the true values that most masterpieces would have. Therefore, if more emphasis has been laid on to ensure that arts could be completely understandable to common people, and then they might be sacrificing their innate value to cater the populace. On the other hand, some masterpieces, like the Mona Lisa's Smile, the Statue of Liberty, etc., possess great merits even if they might not be fully understandable to most people. Simply put it, arts that are popular to people do not necessarily have true merits.[觉得LZ此段有些偏题，merit与value还是有本质区别的，例证中的soap的merit就体现在popularity上，与LZ的观点相反了]

Finally, I concede that arts that have great merits tend to bring pleasure to people and give them an impetus to their mental life, but not all people could understand such melodious feelings due to diverse cultural backgrounds of people. More importantly, arts are always the realization of the inspiration or innate feelings of artists and whether arts possess merits or not are not judged by whether they could be fully understandable to most people but by critics from a professional perspective regarding whether they could successfully express the emotional feelings of the artists.

In a word, it is totally unfair to judge arts from whether they could be understandable to most people. And the true values of arts lie in whether they could effectively express the emotional feelings of the artists and bring pleasure to those who appreciate them.