In a message dated 11/10/2004 10:17:55 AM Eastern Standard Time, marcus.e.helman@gm.com writes:
<< I object to the elitist tone of this. I may not own, or have owned a bunch of bikes, but I have looked at a lot of them. My opinion is good enough for me. At the same time, the hobby is something like a never ending art appreciation course. It is always possible to learn to see beauty in something that you didn't value previously. >>
Your comments strike me a bit at odds with themselves..
If your opinions were good enough for you, who could you learn from?
To identify, learn about and appreciate the Best is elitist by nature. To be able to discriminate between the quality of one object and another is elitist. And I am not talking about strict subjectivity here. We cyclists coexist in a world of cultural patterns and developed tastes that are identifiable.
As an artist (earlier life) I cringed when someone said "I know what I like when I see it"
Grandma Moses and aboriginal artists certainly saw it that way but they did not live in circumstances where they could easily observe man made objects that had progressed within a cultural framework and had evolved in style form and content.
So being able to discriminate is desirable. It is not necessarily dismissive (if that is what you imply by saying elitist) but instead appreciative/ celebratory of refinement in form, idea and execution.
<< I think it would be more interesting to discuss what we term beautiful. >>
Absolutely! But remember, by doing so and the subsequent exclusion of the rest, we will then define what is not beautiful! That is elitism!
Dale Brown
Greensboro, NC