On Opinions, Etc

An administrative note, while I’m thinking of it. I posted about Chris Jordan’s work last week. It was a longish post, maybe not so tightly written, but my main point was that there are a lot of plastic bags in the world and I try to reuse some of them to pick up my dog’s shit. (Sometimes I even carry my milk home by hand! It’s amazing. I feel all virtuous and whatnot.)

A friend of mine IM’d me immediately and said “You like Chris Jordan’s work?” (Clearly she does not.) And I answered honestly: I hadn’t really given it much thought one way or another, beyond the fact that it was an excellent photo to accompany my unformed ideas about consumption and the bags I use for dog shit. I stand by my decision! It really is a good photo for that post… but I still haven’t formed an opinion on the work. (I’m interested to see it in person, I admit it. Don’t kill me.)

I also just posted an item about Gursky’s upcoming exhibition. I have not yet received an IM along the lines of “OMG! You like Gurksy?! Didn’t you know that those German photographers are so totally over? Are you like some total size queen who doesn’t think a photo’s worth anything unless it’s like 40″ x 60″ or something?” but it may well be in the offing. (In case you’re wondering: No. Super NO. You just wait and see how totally no my answer to that question is.)

My point is this: just because I’m writing about something doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m recommending it. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a fan of the superlative. If I like something, I tend to use words like “awesome” “amazing” “excellent” and the words “I” and “recommend” one after the other. Sometimes I use all those words in one post. Usually I try to edit myself so I don’t sound like a pandering sycophant. I don’t always succeed in reducing my enthusiasm down to manageable quantities, but I’m trying.

I also don’t say that I like something when I don’t. If I don’t specifically say I like it, or don’t, it means that I haven’t decided. (And I might never even give it enough thought to form an opinion.) And really what it all boils down to is: who gives a shit? It’s just one woman’s opinion after all. If we all agreed with each other about everything, life would be awfully boring.