Issue 55-work of art, merit, be understandable to most people

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55) In order for any work of art—for example, a film, a novel, a poem, or a song—to have merit, it must be understandable to most people.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.
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原有思路：根据艺术家创作目的分类：
Whether a work of art should be understandable to most people depends on the aim of the author, because the aim might be bringing enjoyment to people, developing the art field or expressing himself.
If the author’s aim is to entertain people, then the work of art should be understandable to most people.娱乐大众的目的在于让更多人从艺术作品中得到享受，因此应该简单易懂，让大多数人理解，从而达到让人们放松和娱乐的目的。举例：电视剧追求高的收视率；电影的好坏用票房评价。
If the author’s aim is to develop the art field, then the expected audiences should be the experts in the art field, which are only a small number of people. 欣赏前沿艺术品需要较高水准的专业艺术知识，因此为推进艺术发展产生的作品的受众往往是该艺术领域的专家，一般的欣赏者难以理解。举例：印象派油画，巴赫注重音乐和声技术的钢琴曲。
If the author’s aim is to express himself, he does not have to make his masterpiece understandable to anybody on purpose. 如果艺术家的作品只是抒发情感，那么他不会在意其他人的看法。举例：梵高的画；Emily Dickinson留下诗稿一千七百余首生前，只是发表过七首。

讨论后思路：
A work of art need not to be understandable to most people because of historical value, intertextuality and innovative techniques of expression.
First of all, a work of art need not to be understandable to most people since it may have great historical value.历史艺术作品反映的是当代的特点，当今人们由于远离那个时代的语言、历史背景而无法理解，但作品有历史价值。举例：莎士比亚作品、荷马史诗。
In addition, intertextuality may be a reason why a valuable work of art cannot be accessible to the majority of people.旁征博引使得很多非专业人士因为不了解领域知识而难以理解该作品，但作品价值在于内容丰富性。举例：达芬奇密码涉及大量宗教知识，很多人看不懂。
Finally, if a work of art has used a lot of innovative techniques of expression, it cannot be understood by most people but has the merit of innovation.举例： James Joice.

感想：
审题方面：It must be understandable to most people 是a work of art has merit 的前提。
原思路之所以不太好是因为一件艺术品出来后其价值不由作者决定。

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First of all, a work of art need not to be understandable to most people since it may have great historical value.
这句话可以改一下
First of all, for a work of art with historical value, it may not be understandable to most people without specialized training.
体会一下区别

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新写一篇大纲，请王老师点评，多谢！

55. In order for any work of art—for example, a film, a novel, a poem, or a song—to have merit, it must be understandable to most people.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

TS (pt1, pt2, pt3): In modern societies, especially the free market oriented ones, a myriad of people reckon the strong comprehensibility level of any art work as the prerequisite of its high value. This point of view is reasonable as for the commercial value of a work of art, especially when we consider the fact that the producer of a film or the publisher of a novel needs to earn money and make a living by providing artistic products. Nevertheless, some masterpieces of art are not mainly created for profits and have the high purely artistic merit. They are likely to be elusive due to involving too many archaic or innovative techniques of expression.

ts (pt1): On the one hand, many artworks nowadays have an explicit and obvious merit, which is primarily measured by how much revenue they create. If a majority of the consumers cannot fathom the meaning of commodities like films or fictions and hence do not watch the movie or purchase the book, the producer or the publisher will suffer a loss and even face a bankruptcy. Consequently, they may deem those products valueless. 这种情况商业和艺术结合得非常紧密的hollywood尤为突出。例如大导演James Cameron的电影Titanic，尽管在制作时被投资方不看好，觉得让观众在一部爱情片前坐三小时简直不可思议，可是Cameron坚持拍完了影片，以简单易懂的剧情与镜头，向观众揭示了爱情和人性的光辉。因此，Titanic大受观众欢迎，很多人买票去观看。这使得Titanic成为了史上票房最高的电影，并保持了该纪录长达12年。对于被感动的落泪的观众来说，Titanic是有艺术价值的，而对大赚一笔的Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Paramount Pictures等公司来说，这部电影是很有商业价值的。相反，大导演Oliver Stone的电影 Alexander，拍得不知所云，因而票房惨淡。观众不明白Stone要告诉他们什么，自然不识其艺术价值，而Warner Bros等投资方大为恼火，也觉得它没有商业价值。

ts (pt2): On the other hand, some artists emphasized the aesthetic merit of their works and their masterpieces of art may be beyond current people’s comprehension merely because the means of expression adopted by the author are obsolete. 例如，中国古诗之美，不是每个现代中国人都能体会得到的。这主要是因为随着时间的推移，古诗的韵律、用词都与现代白话文有了很大的区别。可不能否认的是，古诗记录了古人的劳动、生活风貌，表达了丰富的思想感情，有其特殊的价值。

ts (p3): Furthermore, some artistic works are merely too innovative to be comprehended by their creators’ contemporaries, yet the following generations recognize their exceptional merit at last. 最好的例子就是Vincent van Gogh，在他当画家的十年间，他一共画了2000多幅画，但是只卖出了一幅画 。人们不能明白他的画作价值的主要原因是他的画法和颜色的用法太过前卫，超越了其时代。直到他死后，人们才逐渐发现他的作品彻底改变了Post-impressionism这个绘画流派，并且高度赞扬起他的画来。如今他的名画如Starry Night, Sunflowers等，售价均已高达千万美元以上，不但证明了这些画的艺术价值，还显示了它们的商业价值。