Raise the Hammer

Separated or divorced? Are you coming on to me? Sorry Kevin, this girl is happily married ;-).

This appears to be one of those cases when the tone and intent of an internet post are open to misinterpretation due to the lack of visual and aural cues. It was not my intent to be snide and condescending. Sarcastic, yes, but I saw it as an irreverent response to an irreverent essay. I figured someone with enough mettle to challenge one of the orthodoxies of modern art, wouldn't mind having the piss taken out of them.

In case you haven't guessed, I have an arts background. I have encountered the 'entertain me!/soothe my soul!' mindset all too often over the years. In my opinion it is destructive. It compartmentalizes the arts and turns artists into performing monkeys. It also smacks of egotism and entitlement. Whenever I heard someone say "I don't go to the theatre to learn something, I just want to be entertained!", I always thought "What makes you think you deserve to be entertained?" When you made the comment I quoted above, I thought "What makes you think you deserve to have you soul soothed, and what makes you think it's the artist's job to do it?" If my comment came off a little nastier than intended, perhaps it was because I was taking out some residual anger toward an entire mindset against you, an individual. For that I apologize.

Now, as for my anonymity. I prefer to think of it as pseudonymity. The majority of commenters on this site post pseudonymously. It is simply a convention, not something sinister, and something tells me you would not have been bothered by it if I had agreed with your premise. I do my best not to take advantage of the anonymity my pseudonym confers. In fact I try to take as much care to preserve the reputation of my pseudonym as I do my real world persona. If you think I'm not fully capable of making boneheaded comments in real life you are mistaken, and publishing under your real name certainly hasn't caused you to temper your remarks in any way. In any case, what good would it do to publish my real world name? Unless you happen to know me personally, I'd still be anonymous to you.

I intend to continue commenting on this site under my pseudonym, and other pseudonymous commenters should feel free to continue commenting as well. If you are uncomfortable with my anonymity, I'd be happy to meet you for a cup of joe at Bad Dog or Joe Dog's in Westdale.

And no, I'm not coming on to you. I really am happily married:-).