As some of you know, and many of you don't, my roommates and I have been on a large Gilmore Girls kick. And when I say "Gilmore Girls kick," I really mean "We've gone through the entire series in about a month and a half." Yes, ridiculous. Pathetic, even. But when you're about as boring as the three of us are, it tends to go that way.

And so it would just make sense that watching the series, it would rub off on me and create questions in my mind, as does a good television show does.

One of the questions recently popped into my brain while just having it on in the background as I cooked supper. As fellow Gilmore Girls fans would know, Rory is arguably one of the smartest and most precocious characters ever written. Part of that brilliance is the knowledge of unusual and quite large words.
In addition to her unusual knowledge of words in the English language (and French and Latin as we later find out), is the series' use of references. Anything from the Barefoot Contessa, to journalism names like Bob Woodward and Christian Amanpour, to obscure band and television/film references. Some of them I know. Most of them I don't. But it peaks my curiousity, and often times I find myself googling certain references just to understand the meaning. But the brilliance of the writing in the show is that you don't have to know all the references to understand what they're saying.

But like I said, watching this show has peaked several questions I still have yet to answer, although I have a sense some of them will never be answered. For today, I will just leave you with the question most prevelant in my mind at the moment.

Does it take an artist to truly appreciate the art? or really, simply put, "Does it really take one to know one?" as the saying goes.
I shall further detail my quandary with bits of examples.
As aforementioned, Rory is the journalist and English "freak." Her knowledge of words and books is astounding. So it just makes sense that as the series goes on, episode after episode there are references to famous journalists, both past and present, to journalism terms, and of course the use of exemplary words. As a fellow journalist, my classes have taught me such words and references in the journalism world, and so I feel as if I connect and can appreciate the words and the references.
Now, to the average person, the knowledge and use of such words and references might go unnoticed. Or even if they are acknowledged, they are at most interpreted in a horizontal manner, not being able to understand its full depth.

The same goes for me as a dancer. I watch other routines, ranging anywhere from a contemporary piece by Travis Wall or Mia Michaels to a classical ballet piece choreographed centuries ago when Tchaikovsky still gave the breath and life of music to ballet. When I watch other routines, I think I am able to appreciate it more and understand it on a deeper level than others, since I know the difficulty of work and the time and effort strained into it. As an artist, a choreographer, I watch other pieces with what I think of as a greater appreciation, taking into account all the things good choreographers do. While the average viewer might just say "I think that was amazing," I could probably take that statement and divulge why.

Not to say I am a head above the rest. In the matters of science or mathematics, if someone were to create a hypothesis or theorum, then create the data and evidence to back it up, I wouldn't understand in the least. All I would do is look at the numbers and cringe. (As my journalism professor would say, "When we see numbers, our eyes have a tendency to gloss over.") I would stand there dumbfounded. Probably amazed at what I was looking at, but still completely clueless as to its actual extend and importance.

Now, this doesn't go without its own controversy.
After I posted this question on twitter, a friend of mine replied:
"No. Otherwise there would be very few would would appreciate greatness."
So is that true, as well? If we only appreciate what we know and understand, there really wouldn't be much appreciation in this world, would there?


So what do you think?
Is appreciation only for the knowledgable? Does it really take one to know one?
Or can appreciation for art, or science/mathematics, for that matter, be held by those with less or no knowledge at all?

OR, can we all appreciate work, but we appreciate it at different levels?

So seriously, what do you think?
Quandary.