Killing the Author of the Message is War

Why it makes no sense to criticize the producers of popular art (and wine)

Try to imagine a world in which Francois Truffaut was in charge of determining which films got made; or a world in which Andrew Lloyd Webber determined which plays got produced; a world in which Barry Manilow approved the songs to be played on the radio. Better yet, how about a world in which Jules Chauvet, the famed Beaujolais negociant who is considered the godfather of natural wine, gets to decide which wines show up on supermarket shelves?

I’m not asking what the consequences are of a centrally planned economy. I’m asking what are the consequences of overriding popular tastes.

I ask this question while also fully admitting that I am an admirer of the urbane, erudite and cultured among us. Gore Vidal is my favorite writer. He could turn a phrase and tell a tale. But most of all he could succinctly explain quality while eviscerating the philistines among us…all in one sentence.

What he did not do, however, was criticize honest attachment to the mundane and simple. We (the wine-one-percent) ought to follow his lead and not lament the fact that the vast majority of wine drinkers prefer soft, simple, sweet wines. More important, we should not vilify those folks who chose to cater to these tastes.