Quote:
Originally Posted by st.cronin
I think we do want our artists to do that - but, not to get redundant, wanting that presupposes the existence of an audience.
|
Presupposing (or praying for) the existence of an audience is a separate issue from creating a work that takes audience consideration into account in a serious way (e.g. making a narrative decision in opposition to an artist's original vision based on perceived reaction). An artist can want an audience without altering his vision (raises hand). Speaking personally, I tend to assume that my readers will not notice most of the stuff I've built in craftwise to make the machine work -- and if I'm doing a good job, they generally won't. It's kind of like with music -- you don't notice every instrument the first time you listen, or understand all the words.
To reiterate, I don't think you're unbright from the argument you're making -- you're certainly not alone in feeling that audience is important in art, but we just disagree as to the role of that relationship. But I would wager that most serious artists are concerned with any eventual audience for aspects of their career that are unconnected from their work, and generally create work that satisfies themselves and their ideas of what any artists who are important to them might think or have thought.