I stole the title of my blog
Currently a 20 year college student studying mathematics who also enjoys the creative arts; more specifically, the consumption and discussion thereof, and with that purpose in mind, is writing a blog, because that is the thing to do if you have nothing to do, which I don’t, sometimes.
Central thesis of this blog: art does not exist; rather, art is a pointless definition. The concept art is only useful to label some things ‘art’ and the rest ‘not art.’ ‘Art’ is not important to be able to identify, nor does it have a definition which yields interesting results. In fact, after thousands of years, it barely has any definition at all, so my response is to give up on art and consider its less-hot-but-smarter-and-is-secretly-hotter-but-doesn’t-bother-wearing-the-clothes-to-show-it younger sister creation i.e. things created by people (not Creation with the capital ‘C’). All creation is too much, obv., so I choose to limit myself to interesting creation.
Who decides what’s interesting? Me. And you. All in all: everyone (assuming everyone reads this blog) A.K.A. society. However this here is my soap box, so in this case, me and only me with zero apologies or explanations. If I like it, it’s good. I’ll tell you why, but if you disagree, obviously you don’t care why I think it’s good, nor should you.
If not for discussion, then, why? Why do this?
The reasons, in order of import:
- I want to.
- It’s something to do.
- As a resource. The number one reason I read anyone’s art opinion blog — the anime blogs, the music blogs, the book blogs, etc — is because they share my taste. They like things I like, so when I want to find something new to like, I go there and do so. I believe I have good taste. Some people would not think so. They probably shouldn’t read this blog. Those of you who do, please, come here from time to time and say, “What’s he up to? I’ll give that a go.”
- To achieve inevitable internet fame and glory etc.
The title: many of the things I like are loud and horrible which is a harsh way of putting it. From another perspective (mine) they are energetic and unrefined, but ‘Energetic & Unrefined’ doesn’t read as well and isn’t plagiarism (you can’t copyright a title). Not everything on here will be, so if that is not your taste, don’t worry; you can still find something you’ll enjoy (probably). The banner reads the same in Japanese. (Many of the things you see on here will be products of Japan. Yes that is a bias. No, I don’t care.)
Other biases: I like things that make me think. They do not necessarily have to be extremely challenging or metaphorical or oblique, but if they make me think, they score points. I like things that make me feel. They need not be sappy or tragic or romantic, but if they make me feel, they score points. Often the two go together. An interesting scene often makes me feel excited, and an emotive scene often makes me think about those feelings. I hope that these two biases cover a wide range of tastes so that the majority of people who end up here find something to enjoy.
A note on my usage of ‘cartoon’: many of the things I watch are animated, because I like that. Some people would call Japanese animated works anime. I do not. I call them cartoons because the only thing that differentiates anime from cartoons is the country of origin, and dividing things by nationality is racist. I choose ‘cartoon’ over ‘animated work’ because ‘animated work’ sounds bad. Some people don’t like the word cartoon’s childish associations, but I don’t mind. Firstly, ‘cartoon’ didn’t make itself childish, so it seems unfair to not use such a useful term just because of one association that is — secondly — not even that bad. Reading ‘childish’ as ‘not worthy of consideration’ is ageist and may cause the dismissal of many works which should be taken much more seriously by nearly everyone. Finally, ‘cartoon’ sounds good; I find the double ‘o’ sound pleasant and fun.
A note on my usage of ‘read’: I use read as ‘general media consumption.’ If I am talking about a work in general i.e. any type of creation, media unspecified, I will talk about ‘reading’ it. I choose this because it makes the most sense to me and because the word ‘read’ has a soothing, soft ‘r’ hard ‘d’ sound going for it, which I like.
If this isn’t the first post you read, you may currently feel angry and confused. Keep in mind that those emotions are caused by chemical imbalances in your blood and will fade momentarily. Take a deep breath (even if you feel fine, do so) and go find something to enjoy.
Loud & Horrible 