Mau-rrrri-zzzio!
Excuse me, haven't we met before? I'm not Maurizio, I'm afraid.
I know you are not. Sorry, I just couldn't help thinking about his performance that I listened to.
I'm relieved, because I was about to take you by the arm to the optometrist's. Psychiatrist was only my second option.
I hadn't listened to Maurizio Pollini's piano performance for quite some time. It's nice that what used to move me so much still has the same big impact.
We could say that your taste simply hasn't evolved, but let's be a bit merciful here and say that your judgment proved to be timeless. But if you like him so much, why the hiatus?
It wasn't intentional. It's probably because if you listen to the same thing over and over again, you become numb to it and its value becomes much less evident.
You had to listen to other performers in order to appreciate him again.
I guess it comes down to that. Appreciation comes from comparison. Our intrinsic need for variety can be traced to that fact, too; we can have too much of a good thing.
Occasionally, I come across something that my instinct tells me that it is of great value. That happens even if I do not have any comparison material.
I think you do have some, but you are just not aware of them. Others in the same category that you encountered did not impressed you enough, either positively or negatively, to make you form an opinion. But the information has been stored.
Whenever I think "Oh, that's pretty," or "It's boring," it's in comparison with what I know already?
Exactly.
What happens when you encounter the very first item in a particular category, for example, the first oil painting in your life?
You compare it with something that you know and is close in nature. You may think, "I thought I liked watercolor paintings and this is the only oil painting that I have seen, but I probably like oil paintings better." I'm sure you have had experiences along that line. Everything has to have a reference point.
I've read somewhere that we don't know what is beautiful unless we are taught. I suppose you are of the same opinion.
Yes, although I think the word, taught, needs some qualification. Think about some people that you knew some time ago. Isn't there any whom you appreciate much better now because you have met more of undesirable characters since?
I recall some people whom I underappreciated before, but that's because I didn't have enough understanding of human behavior and psychology.
I think we agree on this issue. If you have changed your view over time, it means that your thought system has been reorganized, and the process necessarily includes comparison. That happens with incorporation of new information, or possibly without.
You're a relativist.
A bit of structuralist, too.
And post-structuralist. I know you are into deconstruction of almost anything.
Talking about comparison, haven't you ever felt that the raison d'être for people other than your lover is to make you realize how special your lover is?
Just like it is for your Maurizio and other performers?
I do like some other pianists and the types of music that Pollini does not care to play. I enjoy them with or without him. But I also know that if it were not for them, I would not love Pollini as much.
Isn't that a choice by elimination?
I love Pollini for his talent and skills, and I value him because I have listened to other performances, including my own. It's not quite right to say that it's by elimination, but I may say that it's conditional.
Whereas romantic love is supposed to be unconditional...
Which is outright impossible.
You shouldn't draw a conclusion like that from your own, bizarre experiences. The sample is too small---an error of hasty generalization!
It's deduction, pure and simple! You fall in love with someone because s/he is different from others, right?
True, I don't fall in love with everybody.
That means your preference for that person is conditional on what you see as her/his personal attributes.
True.
If your lover-to-be feels that you are special as well, you two may become lovers. Once that stage is reached, your lover, yourself or both of you, would want love that is unconditional.
That happens...
Which is contradictory to the premise that led you and your lover to be lovers in the first place.
Your feelings for your lover is conditional, but you want your lover's feelings for you to be unconditional. And your lover has the same problem with you...
I used to see it that way, but now I'm more sympathetic toward him. Both the husband and the wife were quite stylish, and I could tell that being so was quite important in their relationship. If you promise to love a person more than others under any circumstances, including habit, personality and appearance changes, plus incompatibility that is revealed only after you declare your undying love, how is that different from picking a lover by lottery?
A big lottery, that's what life is. I thought you knew it already. If it weren't and you could choose, would you have chosen to be you?
Excuse me, haven't we met before? I'm not Maurizio, I'm afraid.
I know you are not. Sorry, I just couldn't help thinking about his performance that I listened to.
I'm relieved, because I was about to take you by the arm to the optometrist's. Psychiatrist was only my second option.
I hadn't listened to Maurizio Pollini's piano performance for quite some time. It's nice that what used to move me so much still has the same big impact.
We could say that your taste simply hasn't evolved, but let's be a bit merciful here and say that your judgment proved to be timeless. But if you like him so much, why the hiatus?
It wasn't intentional. It's probably because if you listen to the same thing over and over again, you become numb to it and its value becomes much less evident.
You had to listen to other performers in order to appreciate him again.
I guess it comes down to that. Appreciation comes from comparison. Our intrinsic need for variety can be traced to that fact, too; we can have too much of a good thing.
Occasionally, I come across something that my instinct tells me that it is of great value. That happens even if I do not have any comparison material.
I think you do have some, but you are just not aware of them. Others in the same category that you encountered did not impressed you enough, either positively or negatively, to make you form an opinion. But the information has been stored.
Whenever I think "Oh, that's pretty," or "It's boring," it's in comparison with what I know already?
Exactly.
What happens when you encounter the very first item in a particular category, for example, the first oil painting in your life?
You compare it with something that you know and is close in nature. You may think, "I thought I liked watercolor paintings and this is the only oil painting that I have seen, but I probably like oil paintings better." I'm sure you have had experiences along that line. Everything has to have a reference point.
I've read somewhere that we don't know what is beautiful unless we are taught. I suppose you are of the same opinion.
Yes, although I think the word, taught, needs some qualification. Think about some people that you knew some time ago. Isn't there any whom you appreciate much better now because you have met more of undesirable characters since?
I recall some people whom I underappreciated before, but that's because I didn't have enough understanding of human behavior and psychology.
I think we agree on this issue. If you have changed your view over time, it means that your thought system has been reorganized, and the process necessarily includes comparison. That happens with incorporation of new information, or possibly without.
You're a relativist.
A bit of structuralist, too.
And post-structuralist. I know you are into deconstruction of almost anything.
Talking about comparison, haven't you ever felt that the raison d'être for people other than your lover is to make you realize how special your lover is?
Just like it is for your Maurizio and other performers?
I do like some other pianists and the types of music that Pollini does not care to play. I enjoy them with or without him. But I also know that if it were not for them, I would not love Pollini as much.
Isn't that a choice by elimination?
I love Pollini for his talent and skills, and I value him because I have listened to other performances, including my own. It's not quite right to say that it's by elimination, but I may say that it's conditional.
Whereas romantic love is supposed to be unconditional...
Which is outright impossible.
You shouldn't draw a conclusion like that from your own, bizarre experiences. The sample is too small---an error of hasty generalization!
It's deduction, pure and simple! You fall in love with someone because s/he is different from others, right?
True, I don't fall in love with everybody.
That means your preference for that person is conditional on what you see as her/his personal attributes.
True.
If your lover-to-be feels that you are special as well, you two may become lovers. Once that stage is reached, your lover, yourself or both of you, would want love that is unconditional.
That happens...
Which is contradictory to the premise that led you and your lover to be lovers in the first place.
Your feelings for your lover is conditional, but you want your lover's feelings for you to be unconditional. And your lover has the same problem with you...
Long time ago, I read about a husband who married his wife on the condition that they would get divorced if she gained three kilos or more. He apparently said it tongue in cheek, but I got the sense that it wasn't entirely a joke.
That's callous, selfish, superficial, childish, anti-feminist!
That's callous, selfish, superficial, childish, anti-feminist!
I used to see it that way, but now I'm more sympathetic toward him. Both the husband and the wife were quite stylish, and I could tell that being so was quite important in their relationship. If you promise to love a person more than others under any circumstances, including habit, personality and appearance changes, plus incompatibility that is revealed only after you declare your undying love, how is that different from picking a lover by lottery?
A big lottery, that's what life is. I thought you knew it already. If it weren't and you could choose, would you have chosen to be you?
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