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dfranke comments on Open Thread: October 2009 - Less Wrong
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Yes. No. No. No.
Hell no. I have a completely unbroken track record of hating every single book that I have ever read for the first time as a class assignment, and have never found that a book I already liked was improved by this kind of dissection.
Not one bit! I have mostly become a better writer by learning related skills (I was allowed to make up my own second major in undergrad, and therefore literally have a degree in worldbuilding), practicing, and emulating the good parts of what I read. I now have to turn off my critical faculties entirely to enjoy any works of fiction at all, even those that are overall very good, because detecting small flaws in their settings, characterization, handling of social issues, dialogue, use of artistic license, etc. will throw off my ability to not fling the book at a wall. Works that aren't overall good turn on said critical faculty in spite of my best efforts. I can barely have a conversation about a work of fiction anymore without starting to hate it unless I'm just having a completely content-free squee session with an equally enthusiastic friend!
I guess I'm a mutant?
Although I have never read an entire Dostoevsky novel (my reading list is enormous and I haven't gotten around to it), I have really liked the excerpts I've read - immediately, without having to work for it. This is why I plan to read more of his stuff when I get around to it. I've never tried any Tom Clancy. Is he worth reading?
Maybe this is just my idiosyncrasy, but I think making the reader work hard when this isn't absolutely necessary - in fiction, nonfiction, or anything else - is a failure of clarity, not a masterstroke of subtlety. This isn't to say that you can't still have a good work that makes the reader do some digging to find all the content, but that's true of any flaw - you can also have a good work with a kinda stupid premise, or with a cardboard secondary character, or that completely omits female characters for no good reason, or has any of a myriad of bad but not absolutely damning awfulnesses.
I've preferred classical music over other genres since preschool. I think that's sufficient to rule out any explanation of my tastes involving signaling, because a preschooler's appreciation of classical music signals nothing to other preschoolers. Neither of my parents was particularly into classical music, so I wasn't reflecting any expectation of theirs either. I'm in agreement with anonym about the value of music education: it has heightened my enjoyment and appreciation of all music: classical especially, but pretty much everything else as well, other than maybe hip-hop.
However, I also agree with you about literature. Every English class that I had to take in middle school through college completely destroyed my ability to enjoy the subject under study for years to come. I used to love Michener until I had to write an essay about his work during my junior year of high school; I haven't been able to face him since. I don't think this contrast reveals anything unusual about my psyche; rather I think it means that the comparison of English education to music education is apples-to-oranges.
I don't think I've ever claimed that the only reason anyone would like classical music would be because of signaling. If you liked it as a preschooler, it seems to me that's just your taste, and I'd neither privilege it nor scorn it compared to the taste of someone who, in preschool, liked any other kind of music. I think that the only reason to devote time and energy to learning to like classical music when you don't already - which I doubt you did in preschool - is for signaling purposes.
Wait, the only reason? Really? I'll certainly admit it's a pretty common reason.
Okay, you're right, that was an overstatement. There could be boredom, or course requirements, or curiosity, or things like that.
What about the desire to make an "aesthetic investment" -- that is, to put in some work upfront in order to reap the rewards of a high-quality experience later on? (Why, I wonder, are people so quick to dismiss the possibility of such rewards?)
As regards signaling as a "common" motivation: maybe this works in continental Europe, or in certain idiosyncratic communities where this kind of music enjoys social prestige. In the mainstream of American society, however, an interest in art music buys you little to no status (particularly as compared with a corresponding interest in similarly elevated forms of other arts, such as literature or painting). To be a devotee of this kind of music is to be a nerd of one of the worst kinds. (It's even considered un-American: witness Bill Clinton's remark that "Jazz is America's classical music".)
You know the cultural asymmetry that C.P. Snow famously described, wherein "well-rounded" educated people are expected to know about more about the humanities than the sciences? Well, it's dwarfed into insignificance by the asymmetry that exists between what "cultured" people are expected to know about music versus what they are expected to know about other arts.
So be extra cautious when positing status-signaling explanations for the behavior of art music devotees, particularly in America.
I've also wondered about the implicit assumption lots of people have that if music were going to yield extreme degrees of pleasure for them, then it would do so without much effort on their part and in quick order. I've also noticed the assumption you touch on that because all non-deaf people have a pair of working ears and have known how to use them since childhood, they are all equally capable of judging different types of music and recognizing that there they're basically all the same, like different flavors of ice cream.
I think you're spot on about classical music and status in America, at least in my neck of the woods. I work at a well-known company in the SF bay area that has a lot of very smart and very well-educated people, and it would be embarrassing for me to admit at work that Bach is my favorite musician or that classical music is my favorite music. It would be viewed as pathetically old-fashioned and uncool.
ETA: I think the status thing with regard to classical music in the SF area is generational. I'm in my thirties. If I and my peers were a generation older, then I think classical music would be regarded more positively and be less stigmatized. When I go to a classical music event, I see mostly people who are at least a generation older than me. In my workplace, the median age is probably something like 28-34, so the classical music listeners are of my peers' parents' generation. To be honest, I completely agree with the accusations of signaling for the vast majority of people you see at classical music events around here. Few of the (mostly older) people I see at concerts seem like they're there for the music -- they spend their time dozing off, fidgeting with things, people gazing and being gazed at, counting the minutes till intermission and then rushing out at the end without wanting to hear the encores. People my age and younger at concerts seem much more sincere, even if there are so few of them.
Here's a couple more: desire to learn an instrument (because training often uses mainly classical repertoire), or the recommendation of someone trusted. One could argue the latter is about status, but I don't think it always is.
Those are reasons too - good ones, even. And it probably depends on the motivation behind the recommendation whether it's about status.