Hacker News Reader

Comment by jerf | Hacker News Reader

Dropping an undefined "better" into a post like that is a bit unfair, since it is basically tautological most ways you could mean that. I'm going to guess you would agree that there is no objective "better", in which case it's totally just defining yourself the win.

I will say this; I have a clear preference for some modern stuff over the older stuff. The biggest one is modern TV vs. older TV; going back to 1960 or 1970 and trying to watch TV for me is simply infuriating; it's all so damned slow. Actually running it 30% faster (as in, watching it literally sped up 30%) helps quite a bit.

View on HN

I didn't explained myself well then.

My point is that, in my opinion, there is no progress in art exactly for the reason you have just given that there is no objective "better" to measure progress with.

About TV..., if you are talking about TV shows I wouldn't consider them art at all.

I'd argue that there was more interesting video content being produced for TV in the last ten years than movies. (Maybe you don't consider movies art either...) I'll put The Wire up against any movie in the last ten years.

The wire is also the only show I know of that moves slowly enough to tell an interesting story. I would put the wire up against anything period.

"if you are talking about TV shows I wouldn't consider them art at all."

Ernie Kovacs.

Also Playhouse 90.

"if you are talking about TV shows I wouldn't consider them art at all."

Also tautological depending on your definition of "art". The definition I favor doesn't disqualify something for the medium it is in, but it certainly isn't the only relevant definition.

Every time somebody express an opinion somebody else can call it a tautology if he decides that the speaker is willing to tweak the definition as he likes.

To point it out is pleonastic.

The following sentence is tautological.

The previous sentence is tautological and pleonastic.

I am sensitized to it on the issue of art. The word is in the class of words that are content free and should never be used without at least some cursory stab at which of the virtually infinite definitions you actually mean.

"TV isn't art" carries a lot of connotation, but no actual denotation. I object to just lobbing the connotation into a conversation and acting as if something has actually been established.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com