Thank you for highlighting that dichotomy; I pay a lot of attention to optimizing aesthetic experience over insight. A quote of Tolstoy’s really stuck with me, “If I were told that I could write a novel whereby I might irrefutably establish what seemed to me the correct point of view on all social problems, I would not even devote two hours to such a novel; but if I were to be told that what I should write would be read in about twenty years’ time by those who are now children and that they would laugh and cry over it and love life, I would devote all my own life and all my energies to it.” I’m not sure I quite agree with the first half of his sentiment, but I definitely agree with the second.
Thank you for highlighting that dichotomy; I pay a lot of attention to optimizing aesthetic experience over insight. A quote of Tolstoy’s really stuck with me, “If I were told that I could write a novel whereby I might irrefutably establish what seemed to me the correct point of view on all social problems, I would not even devote two hours to such a novel; but if I were to be told that what I should write would be read in about twenty years’ time by those who are now children and that they would laugh and cry over it and love life, I would devote all my own life and all my energies to it.” I’m not sure I quite agree with the first half of his sentiment, but I definitely agree with the second.