Baraka_Guru

Centuries ago, musicians had the same problem as chefs (I guess) do today: their craft was viewed merely as entertainment or a pastime or a job.

In some cultures (I'm thinking parts of Medieval Europe), music was considered a pale/indulgent entertainment in comparison to, say, the highly aesthetic if not divine arts of painting, sculpture, poetry, etc.

What was the case, however, was not that music was incapable of being an artform. Even the novel was considered a base form at one time. The case was that a society placed values on various endeavours based on opinion and taste.

I think the same thing happens today in such forms as food, fashion, and even video games. People have a tough time calling certain forms art because they don't see it as being valid in contrast to other forms. Yet, the hangup isn't in the compare and contrast; the hangup is in the viewer/experiencer/consumer.

It's like the debate over whether golf or autoracing are sports. Sort of.

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot