The Tolkien Template - Carrying on the torch of mythology and folklore

[Cúdae]

littlemanpoet: I could replace "opinion" with "reaction" if that was what I wanted to say. But since that would form a different idea, I cannot.

I suppose I can't deny that everyone will probably have an opinion about a given work of art...

You can't deny it and that is exactly my point. An opinion could be so small, so slight, that it could easily be overlooked or mistaken as a reaction to something. In this case art is the "something." An opinion is what inspires the reaction to purchase, say, a print of a painting. An opinion is what causes the reflection. An ordinary person could read the Hobbit and hate it. But then he has reasons for hating it, whether he knows it or not. If he knows it, he has reflected on it. Maybe not reflected in the sense that he sat down and said to himself, "I hated this book because it did not capture my imagination, it bored me, it was too this, not too much that, etc..." But perhaps he quickly "reflected" on it and came up with, "This book was boring." Or, his subconscious reflected on it and backed up the opinion formed. He knows he doesn't like the book, he just cannot bring the reasons to mind.

You could argue that reflection is needed before opinion because one would need some type of basis for that opinion. But look at it this way, someone goes to an art museum and looks at a painting by van Gogh. Immediately, he dislikes it. He has not reflected on it yet, but his opinion is there. Again, you could argue this by throwing my own words back at me with the idea of "subconscious reflection." So, let's take another example. Someone looks at the same painting by van Gogh from down the hall and also dislikes it immediately. This person has not taken the time to walk up to the painting, as the other person obviously had. Therefore, the opinion probably came faster to this person than the other. I understand that you could argue this too, but I will present another idea.

Another idea is that opinion and "reflection" cannot exist without one another. In this idea, very fast subconscious "reflection" is needed. It presents the idea that reflection can come first or opinion can first. Or they can occur simultaneously.

Hopefully this has explained why I did not use "reaction" but chose "opinion" in my last post.