[Pro-nice people] like transparently “happy” music and transparently “beautiful” works of art and literature
Apologies if this seems like a nitpick in context, but I am in general very suspicious of theories that don’t seem to acknowledge the complexity of aesthetic value/experience. I have cringed since elementary school at how people classify music into “happy” and “sad”, and I’m pretty sure that “beautiful” is comparable to “good” in its complexity as a concept. (It’s also a loaded word, because “beautiful” is arguably synonymous with “of high aesthetic worth”, in which case it doesn’t make sense to “dislike beauty”.)
I have a pro-nice personality, a melancholic temperament, and a taste for the entire spectrum of emotional nuances present in art.
Apologies if this seems like a nitpick in context, but I am in general very suspicious of theories that don’t seem to acknowledge the complexity of aesthetic value/experience. I have cringed since elementary school at how people classify music into “happy” and “sad”, and I’m pretty sure that “beautiful” is comparable to “good” in its complexity as a concept. (It’s also a loaded word, because “beautiful” is arguably synonymous with “of high aesthetic worth”, in which case it doesn’t make sense to “dislike beauty”.)
I have a pro-nice personality, a melancholic temperament, and a taste for the entire spectrum of emotional nuances present in art.