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nath,

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I mean nobody looks at Michelangelo's work and says "Man, what crazy tasteless papal hack commissioned THAT?"

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Sure they could, and I'm sure millions have. Just because the work was executed well doesn't mean everyone will (or should) like it. Most people, especially lay-people, will evaluate the quality of the work based on how well they like it.

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Sure, but it becomes obvious what criteria people use to evaluate things as they do so, and who should and should not be allowed to be a tastemaker as a result. Ideally, the people who know what they're talking about will serve that role; increasingly, vox populi matters more than ever, what with the Internet making it easy for ANYONE to make their creative output readily available to a vast and diverse audience.

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As experts in our fields, all we can do is show people examples of things done well and offer criticism. But that's as far as it goes. Whether or not someone will actually like what we show them is neither in our control nor in our jurisdiction. Maybe you're saying kind of the same thing.

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Well, I don't take it personally when people don't like what I recommend them, as has happened in this thread already. My opinions on these things are pretty clear and defined, and I don't qualify or get wishy-washy about anything I really like or really hate or anything in between. So I probably look more strident and dogmatic than most people; however, I think this is because most people are used to watered-down statements and tons of qualifiers about differences of opinion, etc.