On extremely sophisticated tastes
What do you think when you see people get very emotional about extremely sophisticated things in art, culinary, fashion and similar areas? What do you feel when you listen to some gourmet enthusiast describing why this thing pictured below matters?
Long gone are days when I was dismissive about such things. I no longer think it’s stupid to like fancy, extravagant, expensive or exotic things. Whatever makes you happy! Although I occasionally feel dissatisfaction regarding the sheer inefficiency of such things (that fancy meal’s total cost can feed a village for a week, probably). But mostly, lately I feel kind of sad.
To me, these things scream “what else can I do in order to not think about death?”. I’m sure people are not feeling this way, and I’m not here to put words into their mouths (or thoughts into my models of their personalities). Maybe something is wrong with me to think that.
We generally think that seeking meaning or happiness in houses and cars is a bad thing, a worthless endeavour. But seeking them in art or beauty or food is different. Why?