Is escorting an art?

[woodlawn]

>Please tell us this isn't going to lead to another round of

>lovebird chriping between the 2 of you. Because The last one

>was utterly unbearable.

 

If it's unbearable, then don't bear it. Take the same advice you recently gave to the poster 10cc when he complained about the pointlessness of the discussion you and others were having in the thread "Appeal to Hooboy." If you don't like it, don't read it. Any reason the same shouldn't apply to you?

 

>I too have been struck by the frequency with

>>which posters here state that anyone who disagrees with them

>>must be suffering from "self-hatred."

 

>Is this the same as, or different than, stating that anyone

>who disagrees with you must be a pathological liar, as in:

>

><<No one who is not a pathological liar denies that it has

>become harder and harder to afford a middle-class lifestyle in

>this country.>>

>

>Is there a difference between: (a) stating that anyone who

>disagrees with you is suffering from self-hatred and (b)

>stating that anyone who disagrees with you is a pathological

>liar?

 

Of course there's a difference. When someone has a long history of denying objective facts -- such as the objective fact that it is becoming harder, not easier, to afford a middle-class lifestyle in this country, or the objective fact that people who take the latest HIV drugs often suffer serious and debilitating side effects -- it's quite appropriate to observe that, for whatever reason, they have a problem dealing with the truth. That's merely an observation of behavior. Claiming that someone suffers from self-hatred, on the other hand,` is an attempt to diagnose an emotional problem based on observable behavior. That is best left to people who actually have the education and training to engage in such diagnosis rather than to self-important amateurs who know nothing about the field but merely use psychiatric jargon they don't really understand.

 

>Thanks in advance for speaking as eloquently as I know you

>will to the distinction between these two statements.

 

Nothing could be easier.

[Guest DevonSFescort]

I'd be curious to hear whether Doug69 and others who vehemently insist that escorting can't be considered an art actually have any criteria for establishing what they do or don't consider art? If so, what are they and which of them does escorting invariably fail to meet?

 

While we're waiting to hear from them, I'd also like to comment that when people in just about any profession, including those not traditionally thought of as creative professions, think of themselves as artists and feel as though they are making art through whatever their particular "medium" is, it can have a positive effect on the quality of the work they do. Not, of course, if they affect a snobby or pretentious attitude (which, after all, has nothing to do with making art). But being able to find creative expression in the work one does can take that work to the next level.

 

Take something as mundane as bagel preparation. I often stop at the Noah's before a flight out of SFO. Their food is fine and I'm happy with the price I pay for it, and they knock it out quickly and efficiently. Perfectly satisfactory.

 

But the guy at the place where I go when I'm not on the road -- he lavishes unbelieveable amounts of attention on the presentation of the bagel, lox, and vegetables. The garnishes are sometimes Byzantine in complexity and his sense of balance and color rivals Matisse's. The environment he creates in his shop further enhances the experience. We've talked about this and he definitely views it as an art, though at the same time he knows perfectly well "what it really is." People are, after all, capable of viewing things on multiple levels. So too an escort can think of himself as an artist without it being a euphemism, and he can simultaneously be perfectly aware that escorting "is what it is," or as an (undisputed) artist, Frank Stella, once remarked about his own paintings, "what you see is what you see."

 

It's interesting that we're having this conversation on the heels of a century whose art movements continuously challenged and often shattered the boundaries of what had previously been considered art. To me foxy's question seemed like a interesting (and informed) response to the implications of some of those movements, not a denial of the realities of the escort/client relationship.

[Rick Munroe]

>Take something as mundane as bagel preparation. I often stop

>at the Noah's before a flight out of SFO. Their food is fine

>and I'm happy with the price I pay for it, and they knock it

>out quickly and efficiently. Perfectly satisfactory.

>

>But the guy at the place where I go when I'm not on the road

>-- he lavishes unbelieveable amounts of attention on the

>presentation of the bagel, lox, and vegetables.

 

Devon...[big]eating carbs??!![/big] :o

[Guest DevonSFescort]

>Devon...[big]eating carbs??!![/big] :o

 

With a metabolism like mine...yes. :*

[Rick Munroe]

>With a metabolism like mine...yes.

 

But you've occasionally said in your diary that you're one cookie away from losing your abs and that you avoid carbohydrates at all costs. Wassup wit dat, yo?

[+ honcho]

Only intending to be marginally curmudgeonly and pedantic, and intending no insult or denigration to your friend or his skils, might you consider him a "Master Craftsman" instead of an "Artist"?

 

The distinction here is that "Art" seems to be the act of making an intentional esthetic statement. I think of "Craft" as being the skillful execution of something which may have an esthetic component, but not the primary intent.

 

The border between them is fuzzy; but I beileve that even custom designed and beautifully executed furniture is mostly craft.

 

I took music lessons from a first chair player in a major opera orchestra who considered himself a "Craftsman" whereas he considered his counterpart in the local symphony to be a true "Artist".

 

I'm kinda out of my league here, never having studied "Esthetics" in an academic setting . . . Maybe Will could chime in?