Koyaanisquatsi is one of my favorite films, and seeing it for the first time i thought it was just generally amazing in terms of its imagery. after hearing the director’s comments, though, it became more amazing. he talked about his attempt to show how we no longer live in a natural environment, how technology IS our environment. he goes on in more detail. now every time i watch the movie i feel like he really DID what he set out to do. my opinion of the movie as art is heightened. it was moving, but almost more importantly it actually said the unsayable thing he was going for.

in contrast, there’s a art gallery near me that displays pieces in windows open to the streat. near halloween there was a piece that was a cobweb of colored lights, tacky light up decorations, and chachky glowing ornaments. the whole mess was a little grotesque, i thought, and a bit disturbing. it resonated with me and i thought it was commenting on the chlostrophobic feeling i get from beign in a department store, or the bizaare morbidity of hanging plastic santas. but when i read the artists statement nearby, the intention was to “brignt light and cheeryness to the dark, gloomy time of year”. as far as i was concerned, the art piece had totally failed to achieve its goal. it created the exact opposite reaction. i still like looking at the piece, but my opinion of it as “art” dropped.

You know, I actually intended to mention that as another one of my critical criterion–whether a work succeeds at what it intends to do. If it’s a comedy, is it funny? If it’s a contemporary realistic drama, do the character behave believably? etc. I realized later, though, that this is much tricker and much more limiting than it ought to be. A lot of the very best art succeeds precisely because it does a lot more than the artist may have originally intended or planned, and transcends whatever genre it may participate in. Plus there’s the trickiness of discovering what the intent of the artist is (the “intentional fallacy”). I decided to leave it out and maybe post on it another day. :)

As for art vs. entertainment: one of my bedrock convictions on the matter is that the word ‘art’ needs to be made neutral. When people say, “now THAT’S a work of art!” they really mean, “now that’s a work of FINE/GOOD/HIGH art.” Since the avant-garde took over the art world in the 19th century the word “art” and “artist” have acquired an elitist cast which I suggest is unhelpful and limiting. Our debate should not be over whether anime, in this case, is “art” or “entertainment.” All anime is art and all anime is entertainment. Rather, we should be debating whether particular anime is good or bad art and entertainment. I also wanted to remove the stigma of the word “entertainment” too.

Finally: yes, you are right, having “layers” is not sufficient to make something good. Plenty of contemporary literature and film is richly layered and almost made for academic analysis–and will be rapidly forgotten. (I suspect, alas, GitS: Innocence will most likely fall in that category.) I do think though that any enduring piece of work endures because people continue to find meaning in it, and if that’s the case then it must have something that reaches out beyond the surface. Something–gasp!–deep. It can be simple: many of the stories in the Bible are simple, like the prodigal son parable. But it is still rich and inexhaustible.

I hope that clarifies some of what I mean. Thanks again!

after the abstractions and obscurities of the dada, cubist and minimalist art movements, i think it becomes difficult to argue that anything is difinitevely not art if someone is tryign to prevent it as such. however to say that all art, and indeed all entertainmet, is equal is as you say to deny the different abilities of different works to be lasting and meaningful.

i think two standards of judgement should be applied to all art, be it written word, paint, music, sculpture, comic, animation or video game. one is exactly as you say, the ability of a work to be meaningful to its audience and be meaningful in layers that can reach a multitude of people over time.

the other, however, is the ability of a piece to make use of its medium appropriately to achieve a goal. i like what you say about eva, that it simply would not work as a book. but, its not a book. its animated. not only that, its a series. each medium has something it can add to the universal human discussion that no other medium can. and, each work has a different intention. having layers of meaning does not automatically label a work “good”, and neither does a simple work with a single, focused statement deserve the title “bad” or even “shallow”. a work of art is good if it uses its medium appropriately to reach a goal. (arguably this goal need not be actually intended by the creators.) a
work of art is classic if it can do this and endure.

excelent post.

(i think lord of the rings appears juvenile because it’s themes are, at this point, completely ciche. that doesnt take away from their truth or their value though. cliche things often become cliche because they’re fundamental truths somehow.)

Great line. Brilliant post.

I’ve been meaning to get into Claymore, Ray. In fact I’ll put that at the top of my backlog. Jeremy also tells me it’s one of his favorites and filled with real substance–I can’t wait!

>>The key is often the second watch or the second read. If new layers and new meanings reveal themselves, and questions one might have had somehow get answered cogently–”aha, that’s why he did that! That’s why that happened!”–it is usually a very good sign that there was care and attention put into the story’s craft.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Darker than Black has your name written all over it. I’ve rewatched episodes on a whim and found a new layer of understanding that wasn’t there in the first viewing, and it never fails to deliver a huge impact emotionally — all this while delivering on the action front. You’d do well do give it a shot.

So, I have to say you have written this editorial very well and I agree with most of it.
Very true about characterisation, especially in the case of anime – if I have to list series that have really impressed me plot-wise, I’d be able to list just few and character-wise – a lot more.