Comments on: Julia, Julie, Michael & Betty http://themoderatevoice.com/42004/julia-julie-michael-betty/ An Internet hub for moderates, centrists, and independents, with domestic and international news, analysis, original reporting, and popular features from the left, center, and right Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:38:11 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: pacatrue http://themoderatevoice.com/42004/julia-julie-michael-betty/comment-page-1/#comment-199575 pacatrue Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:03:12 +0000 http://themoderatevoice.com/?p=42004#comment-199575 Well, to ignore lots of interesting points in this post, I was particularly struck by the comment of "food as spectator sport". This has been going on for many years now in the arts as well. Almost all arts have moved, particularly in adulthood, towards watching the arts, not doing them. Drawing for instance is something done by every child in every school. But only a small number of adults draw, even though they used to a few decades ago. Journals and science papers and the like always contained the person's sketch of something. (I think NPR recently had a commentator on this.) Music, unless the trend has only recently changed, has followed a similar model.<br><br>There are so many experts available to us that we feel that unless we are an expert, there's just no point. Why listen to an amateur pianist at a party when you can just put on the Horowitz CD?<br><br>Why spend an hour and a half creating a great meal when you can go to a restaurant, talk with family, and have one show up? Or get a decent one by ordering Chinese take-out?<br><br>Of course, there are reasons that only watching the arts and only watching the food aren't the best for us. My point is simply that food is not alone in following this pattern. Well, to ignore lots of interesting points in this post, I was particularly struck by the comment of “food as spectator sport”. This has been going on for many years now in the arts as well. Almost all arts have moved, particularly in adulthood, towards watching the arts, not doing them. Drawing for instance is something done by every child in every school. But only a small number of adults draw, even though they used to a few decades ago. Journals and science papers and the like always contained the person's sketch of something. (I think NPR recently had a commentator on this.) Music, unless the trend has only recently changed, has followed a similar model.

There are so many experts available to us that we feel that unless we are an expert, there's just no point. Why listen to an amateur pianist at a party when you can just put on the Horowitz CD?

Why spend an hour and a half creating a great meal when you can go to a restaurant, talk with family, and have one show up? Or get a decent one by ordering Chinese take-out?

Of course, there are reasons that only watching the arts and only watching the food aren't the best for us. My point is simply that food is not alone in following this pattern.

]]>