AESTHETIC JUDGMENT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 458, 2 April 1948, Page 5

AESTHETIC JUDGMENT

Sir-yYour correspondent G. S. C. Doyle rises in his righteous indignation to defend his tastes against the rather strongly-worded attack of J. D. Parkin, but his defence is ludicrous; "Who is J. D. Parkin to use such words to people, who though differing on music and programmes, I am sure are on as high a social plane as the correspondent himself." (Italics mine). j Does Mr. Doyle really believe that social position has any relevance to an aesthetic judgment? Does the fact that the common lot of genius is ‘to be ignored by the upper crust diminish the value of its contribution to civilisation one iota? Surely Mr. Doyle did not mean to inform us that, since he knows the right people, his tastes in music and literature\are beyond reproach, I think ‘it a pity,.that Mr. Doyle made such a mistake. How much more effective it would ,jhave been had he been content gently to rebuke Mr.- Parkin for using abusive language, without any reference to "social plane." I deprecate a violent antipathy to "lowbrowism" almost as much, as the condition itself. Mr. Doyle would ‘be quite entitled to believe that the world is flat, and should he do so, it would

be impolite for Mr, Parkin to call hit an ignoramus, even though everyone except Mr. Doyle agreed that it was true. And when it comes to a question of aesthetics there is @ large element of subjectivity in our judgments, In fact, the degree of objective evaluation in aesthetics tends to increase with the height of the brow, but I doubt if we ever say "that’s good" without meaning "TI like that," and we must be tolerant of those whose training has ignored the objective element.

R. J.

BURNS

(Palmerston North).