Epiphany

I had an epiphany today while researching for my upcoming 5,000 word film aesthetics essay about Wong Kar-Wai.

In the course of my research, vociferous arguments about the value of WKW films have risen on numerous occasions between me and J.

Between being accused of using 'mainstream' as a 'dirty word' against him, and of being pretentious because I like art-house films, I have secretly concluded to myself that the reason why some people don't understand is because they just don't have the capacity to 'get it'. No explanation why. Gave up trying to explain, especially if people are pre-disposed against it in the first place.

But I chanced upon this article today and everything suddenly made sense.


The modernist would fail to access the hidden meanings, because they seek totality, wholeness and productive spoon-fed meanings that are absent in Wong Kar-Wai's films.


Nail on the head.
Spoon-fed meanings. Mainstream cinema.
If they don't get it, it's not because they are thick. It's a result of a modernist tradition manifesting itself in the way a person perceives art and the meaning they attribute to it.

Post-modernist vs modernist.
30s vs 20s.
Hollywood vs Art-house.

Difference in the way we're brought up in, the period of time we're brought up in, and the cultural capital we gain as a product of that background... results in the difference of opinion.

I've concluded the mystery. There is no problem with difference of tastes or opinions. Knowing which tradition we come from or are disposed towards just makes the explanation simpler.

It's a matter of acknowledging it.