Talent is a thing

But it's not magic.

OK, I'm just sitting here having my lunch, so I'll take this bait.

Other people's work is generally none of my business unless it's really good. Then I buy it and tell other people I like it.

If it's bad, best to ignore it, not only because I don't see any point in signal boosting poor quality, but it is unprofessional to make negative commentary on other people's art, and online conflict can easily be used as a clickbait tool so people can monetize it. And I don't care to participate or put money in the pockets of people whose work I don't respect.

About the only time I mention someone's bad art is if they get in my face and they're a bad artist. Even then I rarely do, because if I do then they can pretend they got abused by the big mean pro, and they clickbait their way to attention because they're too lazy or otherwise unable to be good at their craft.

I actively dislike a lot of what gets published, and yes, I think some people get published due to the narrative of the person behind the work and not the quality of the work itself. But that too is none of my business, because I am not the publisher, and if the publisher thinks they can market external narrative over artistic merit, then that is the publisher's job.

To make money on stuff.

Marketing narrative, whether within or without the art, over artistic quality is what made the Kardashians rich.

Whether or not everything that gets published due to external narrative is good or bad is not my chessboard to battle on. I really don't care. It's not my job to care.

If people want to pay for comics that look like...um, I dunno, the scrawlings of small children, then they can pay for that. It's none of my business.

Some of those comics are really funny, so it's not necessarily the pictures that are selling it, so the words and pictures served their purpose, and that's what comics are supposed to do. They don't all have to look like they belong on a gallery wall.

If people want to pay for art that was traced from porn mags, they can pay for that, too.

None of that is any of my business unless it ends up in court due to copyright violation. Then I laugh.

Nothing anyone else buys is any of my business, but if you share the news of what you like and I don't like it, I just walk away.

I realize there are people out there who think talent or hard work, or any kind of ability is some kind of trick or lie, and that material equity can be achieved in all things, but I think these people are also marketing a "look how nice I am, kumbaya" narrative for their own benefit, because if equity in the arts could truly be achieved, then every kid on tumblr would be a bestseller and they're not.

There's no such thing as material equity in the arts because purchases are values based and not quality based and you can't force people to buy things that are not congruent with their values, unless we're talking about high school where every few years a new generation of kids complains they have to buy and read To Kill a Mockingbird.

And then a new generation of people on Twitter rushes forward to explain to you why it's a terrible book.

I don't care about those people either. I think it's a great book and I don't read it for them.

The arts can be about merit, or it can be a Harrison Bergeron nightmare of a world where people who stick out too far get hammered down, and here I am mixing metaphors.

There are some people who spend an inordinate amount of time being nasty to some creators because they think they had it easy, and they're yucky perfectionists or something, a feature which is a product of Western supremacy I'm told, but that line of thinking is just people trying to tear down someone who has something they can't have, like pride of craftsmanship, which is intimidating to many.

Some people are attracted to art that reflects what they think they already are or can be.

Some people are attracted to art because it is aspirational. It is not what you are and probably can never be, but you are glad it is there.

Envy and intimidation play a major part in what we like and what we don't like.

Quality is intrinsic, but value is relative.

Most people buy art, especially pop culture art, based on values, not quality.

And those values are none of my business.

I do believe talent exists, but it's not magic. It is inborn cognitive advantage combined with motor skill advantage. I think a lot of people don't want to believe it exists because they think it's unfair.

Yes, it's unfair.

It's unfair in the same way it's unfair I'll never be a great basketball player.

Boo hoo.

My ethos is to be as good at my work as I possibly can, and if people don't like that, fine.

If they want to make speeches about how "quality" doesn't exist and the belief it does is the smoke and mirrors of Western civilization or whatever, then I laugh at the envious cranks.

If they want to dismiss me as a perfectionist, I really freaking don't care because I've seen your art and it's one of those things I won't mention because I'm not going to give you the clicks.