# Acknowledged greats in the Arts that you "don't get" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 2, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367 "2014-02-02T19:01:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/81 "2014-02-04T14:08:05Z")
> [@Mr.Bill](#): > > Tolstoy > > I read about 3/4 of Anna Karenina one summer during college when I was intentionally broadening my horizons. I got to the point that I threw up my hands exclaiming “I don’t give a damn what happens to this stupid woman.” Yep, hate him. My SO loves him, and I have tried a ton of his stuff. I can’t stand it. Since we have a whole shelf of the Russian authors I needed a way to get back him. So opposite the shelf I hung a print of La Cellule D’or, a painting by Redon. Tolstoy mentions it in his book about why modern art is degenerate, considering it an example of how awful it is. I think it’s rather nice, so I make Tolstoy look at it from his shelf. Take that, Tolstoy. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/82 "2014-02-04T14:44:21Z")
> [@Kiyoshi](#): > > Pink Floyd. Boring, boring, meandering waffle. I have no idea why teens of the 70s worship the ground they walk on. I love me some Pink Floyd, but it helps if you started liking them around the same time that you stared getting high…really, really high. Those meandering waffles will take your brain on some incredible journeys with the help of some pot. Also, try The Wall, it’s nothing like DSOTM/Meddle/Animals. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/83 "2014-02-04T15:18:09Z")
Classical music: anything pre-baroque, especially on period instruments. Why do they think the instruments were improved, and musicians started using vibrato? And Leonard Bernstein as composer. His musicals (West Side Story, Candide, etc.) are excellent, but the rest is virtually unlistenable. I don’t know why he was always torn between conducting and composing; it’s obvious where his talent lay. ---
**Author:** ![Evin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@Evin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evin)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/84 "2014-02-04T15:22:56Z")
The enduring Elvis. I pass by Sun Studio each day and marvel at the hordes of English, Australian, German and Japanese pilgrims, many of them impersonators. Ayn Rand. If I were the Terminator, I’d travel back in time and silence her before she wrote a word. Kierkegaard. I already _get_ Angst and Ennui. Sartre. Meaningless drivel. I know it is a stretch to include “philosophers” as artists. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/85 "2014-02-04T15:39:42Z")
The Super Bowl. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/86 "2014-02-04T15:55:40Z")
ah…lots of stuff. Already mentioned: Frank Zappa. I live with a Mother of Inventions FREAK. I was forced to watch a documentary about them. I am a huge disappointment as a mate, (like…well, it’s as if I was not part of a standard religion and was off dancing around a tree at midnight instead of going to a novena). because I don’t like it or get it, then now or in the future. (I fully understand Frank Zappa is considered a marvelous genius and the MoI is well-regarded, but please don’t inflict them on me.) Same for The Grateful Dead, not something I can listen to. (I think when they still had a big career, you had to be a drugged up hippie with dirty feet, part of a big party/club, driving around the country to follow them. I can understand that, but I think their music is droning noise that goes on for hours and it sucks. I’ve seen a video of them performing live in front of an audience, and some of their fans practically convulsing with ecstacy. ???) Oh, and to finish up: sports. All sports, but Football in particular. Loathe it. I went to a game at The Dome and nearly fell out of my nosebleed bleacher seat from boredom. I also went to someone’s house where a game was on TV and was astonished to see a dozen people there all wearing JERSEYS of their teams! And eating pizza and wings, and drinking beer. Cliches cliches cliches all around, that stuff really happens…I think it’s related to the ‘member of the club’, like a religion, that I have never been privy to. ??? I think football is boring, I don’t get it, and I think many of the players are loathesome failures of humanity. But they make money, and that’s all that matters. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/87 "2014-02-04T18:12:22Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I love me some Pink Floyd, but it helps if you started liking them around the same time that you stared getting high…really, really high. Those meandering waffles will take your brain on some incredible journeys with the help of some pot. Also, try The Wall, it’s nothing like DSOTM/Meddle/Animals. Ironically, The Wall, The Final Cut and Waters post Floyd stuff might as well be the opposite of “Trippy Music”. Whatever that is. There is absolutely nothing ‘meandering’ about that music. Deadly articulate is how I would describe it. There’s a difference between ‘trippy’ and ‘psychotic’. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/88 "2014-02-04T18:31:03Z")
I have seen sports referred to as many things, but not generally as Art (the subject of this thread). Unless there’s been a redefinition ? ---
**Author:** ![jrsone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jrsone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrsone)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/89 "2014-02-04T18:59:22Z")
In high school, a lot of my stoner friends were into the band Phish. I didn’t like them, didn’t get it. I consider myself pretty open minded and will give anything a chance buy really, they were bland. I even like some Greatful Dead stuff. ---
**Author:** ![jrsone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jrsone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrsone)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/90 "2014-02-04T19:05:56Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Here’s another “great” artist I’ve never quite figured out: the Beastie Boys. When “Fight For Your Right to Party” came out, I just figured they were a one-hit wonder and that was that. That song is an oddity in their whole catalog. I love the Beastie Boys but they oftentimes came off as annoying and whiny. They made some pretty great “music” behind the lyrics which I enjoy immensly too, but thats subjective. I don’t want to sound like I know what I am talking about, because I am clueless! ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/91 "2014-02-04T19:34:52Z")
> [@jrsone](#): > > In high school, a lot of my stoner friends were into the band Phish. I didn’t like them, didn’t get it. > > I consider myself pretty open minded and will give anything a chance buy really, they were bland. I even like some Greatful Dead stuff. Yeah…Phish, GD, and I get what people are saying about Dave Mathews…but they also have some nice tight singles. ---
**Author:** ![jrsone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jrsone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrsone)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/92 "2014-02-04T20:32:25Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Yeah…Phish, GD, and I get what people are saying about Dave Mathews…but they also have some nice tight singles. I don’t care much for them, but I do love the song “Last Stop” Good musicians overall though. ---
**Author:** ![D.E.S.K.Top668](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@D.E.S.K.Top668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D.E.S.K.Top668)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/93 "2014-02-05T01:36:46Z")
he’s been mentioned already, but I’ll second Jimi Hendrix. Intellectually, I understand and appreciate his contributions to modern rock but I just don’t enjoy listening to his music. The Rolling Stone have few songs I like, but I don’t understand how they became one of the all-time great rock bands. I assume it was a “right time/right place” thing. Tolkien has the honor of writing the first book that I didn’t finish. I read The Hobbit and thought it was good but a bit wordy. Over the next few years I tried to get through The Ring trilogy. About a quarter of the way through book three, I decided that it wasn’t worth trudging through the last book to find out the ending. While the above I can appreciate and understand why others like them but, as far as TV goes, I do actively dislike Seinfeld and don’t understand why people would WANT to watch a show involving characters that, in real life, you’d probably throw them ALL out of your house within 15-20 minutes. Just my $.02 - DESK ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/94 "2014-02-05T01:49:23Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > Yep, hate him. My SO loves him, and I have tried a ton of his stuff. I can’t stand it. > > Since we have a whole shelf of the Russian authors I needed a way to get back him. So opposite the shelf I hung a print of La Cellule D’or, a painting by Redon. Tolstoy mentions it in his book about why modern art is degenerate, considering it an example of how awful it is. I think it’s rather nice, so I make Tolstoy look at it from his shelf. Take that, Tolstoy. 😛 Redon is one I _do_ get, and think underrated. [here is the painting mentioned](http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_image.aspx?image=ps233878.jpg&retpage=21672) (Not to be confused with [this actual example of blue-face degeneracy](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Girl)) ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/95 "2014-02-05T02:17:04Z")
Quentin Tarantino. Can’t stand his movies. I’m not at all easily offended but whenever I watch one of his creations, rarely in recent years, I feel I’m seeing the result of a really sick mind. I kind of liked “Django Unchained” because it was somewhat less Tarantino-esque than usual, but it was still utterly preposterous. Beyond that, I can’t even stand how he looks. Sorry if you’re a fan. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/96 "2014-02-05T02:42:23Z")
Robert Heinlein. I tried reading some of his books when I was in college, and came to the conclusion that he was a reactionary bigot and a shallow thinker whose stories contained many elements of self-adulation and masturbatory fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/97 "2014-02-05T14:51:15Z")
Band: The Stones. Composer: Mozart. Don’t get me wrong: he’s one of the Greats. But as far as I’m concerned, his music is at best pleasant, at worst irritating. I’m aware of the fact that it’s just my taste but he cannot compete with Bach, Beethoven, Brahms or even Tchaïkovsky. Artist: Rubens. Reminds me of old people’s homes (nothing wrong with old people but it’s that… vibe). ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/98 "2014-02-05T16:34:57Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > Quentin Tarantino. Can’t stand his movies. I’m not at all easily offended but whenever I watch one of his creations, rarely in recent years, I feel I’m seeing the result of a really sick mind. I kind of liked “Django Unchained” because it was somewhat less Tarantino-esque than usual, but it was still utterly preposterous. Beyond that, I can’t even stand how he looks. Sorry if you’re a fan. That is EXACTLY how I felt about “Pulp Fiction”. Great acting, terrific plot, and one unnecessary, gratuitous sickening scene after another. And I thought “Pink Flamingos” was hilarious. DO NOT Google that on a work computer if you don’t know what it is. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/99 "2014-02-05T16:50:51Z")
> [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > Composer: Mozart. I have to admit, I never could quite get into Mozart. I loved classical music especially when I was a kid taking piano lessons; I read his biography in grammar school; I saw _Amadeus_; I saw _The Magic Flute_. But none of it ever really spoke to me. I guess I just wasn’t a fan of the Classical period of classical music, except for Beethoven who was a transitional figure between Classical and Romantic. I liked Baroque, and loved Romantic and much of the 20th century stuff, but classical music always sounded too “dainty” for my tastes, for lack of better word. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367/100 "2014-02-05T16:59:47Z")
Speaking of creepy: Irish dancing. The dancers always look like zombies to whom large amounts of voltage has been applied; it doesn’t reach their torsos however, so their arms hang dead at their sides while their legs flop around spasticly. Lord of the dance, my ass. Ballet: Even though I’m hetero, I can’t stop staring at their bulging crotches. Amazingly athletic but still. . .crotches. It’s a good thread, even though I disagree with some of the choices, especially when it comes to Monk, Gillespie and Davis. But it’s all just personal prefs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acknowledged-greats-in-the-arts-that-you-dont-get/680367.md?page=6)