In the comments of my post about Creative Freedom, Melly raised a great point:

“Not all art is pretentious and not all pretentious creations are art.”

This is true. Unfortunately, however, there is guilt by association. A lot of unassuming, genuine art is tainted by pretentious creations. The bad apples.

As I said in the previous post, the root of this pretentious art is an obsession with creative freedom.

Most creative people have high respect for creative freedom. So when you add these things together, you begin to see the problem.

If pretentious creations come from an obsession with creative freedom, and most creative people value creative freedom as being extremely important, then creative people need to watch out for this.

Intention plays a large part as well. When you let the reader or audience know that you are “Doing whatever I want,” you are sending them a message that you are intentionally disregarding their interest or enjoyment in the piece. Personally, when I see a piece of art, read a book, or watch a movie that does this I get angry. I become offended.

The audience is not there for the creator’s amusement.

The medium can be a sandbox of creativity for the creator while they are simply practicing, or playing. Sometimes this happens during the creation of ‘real work.’

But when it’s done well, the audience won’t be aware that the author was playing, or toying, or goofing off. To them it’ll just seem fun or well-crafted.

The exception is when the audience is meant to participate in the work, such as in standup comedy. Magic shows are another example. Video games are yet another.

Comedy, magic shows, and games get away with amazing degrees of nonsense simply because suspension of disbelief is easier when the audience participates.

To be sure, a lot of art relies on interpretation. When the interpretation of the entire composition becomes the responsibility of the audience, that’s pretentiousness.

As the creator, you have to provide some direction. Otherwise, what have you actually done? What work have you done? What ‘creativity’ has taken place?

There should be clear and obvious direction somewhere within the composition.

I buy a product because it imparts some benefit. I watch a film to be interested, informed, or entertained. I read a book to either be informed, interested, or entertained.

Audiences are fickle. We’re just human. We like to see order and a point to things.

As a writer, defy that at your own peril.