So like...idk I'm not sure how to explain this.
I can enjoy art, and I can appreciate and respect art. But like...I don't know how to enjoy things "abstractly" per se?
What i mean is that I like reading and movies and paintings and such. But I can't enjoy "classics" per se. Nor can I enjoy Avant-garde art. But I can respect both. I want to enjoy both too. I've tried reading both Le Miserables and dream of the red chamber but both times ive put them down fairly quickly (although the dream of the red chamber book I was reading was a fairly old translation, so maybe that was it). Ive also tried reading some poems out of Vladimir Mayakovsky's "the backbone flute" but they havent ellicted and reaction from me. And I really, really respect avant-garde work. I would rather someone like Yoko Ono be successful over Blake Shelton, because Blake Shelton makes the most generic crap, while Yoko Ono actually tries to make things different and interesting.
But I kinda would rather listen to Blake Shelton (obviously if I have broader choice I'm picking someone like Woody Gunthrie or Phil Ochs, but if it was between Shelton and Ono, it'd be a tough choice).
So I guess my main question is how do people enjoy art in the "abstract" way (again, I know that's not a good term but idk what else to call it)? Because I see critics and such wax lyrically about this stuff and they seem to really enjoy it so I wanna enjoy art like that too, beyond "oh it's pretty" or "oh its fun."
I'm not gonna lie I feel like a lot of people who say they "get" some piece of art actually don't and are just saying that to fit in. And like I don't think haikus are some sort of genius format, in fact they are very easy to make (even more so in English). The simplicity is part of the beauty because it forces you to talk about simple things and be evocative, but it's not some exercise in genius.
And some people are on a whole other level from you or I, absolutely. Personally I kinda experience art the same way you do. My brain is too analytical to get lost in the experience. And a lot of art is made to be consumed. I was reading the Count of Monte Cristo and it doesn't have any pretense that it's trying to be transformative or revolutionary; back in those days (same with Les Mis), writers were published in newspapers one chapter at a time, so they had an incentive to write long stories and popular stories, i.e. stories that the people would read as they would drive newspaper sales. Monte Cristo is good and I really should get back into it, but I was actually surprised at how easy it was to follow. It doesn't try to win any points for style, it just tells a story. You could absolutely transpose it to another media form, it doesn't "have" to be a novel.
But I don't think the way you experience art is wrong per se or needs fixing. It's an elitist point of view to say "well this went over your head, but not mine!" like some people do (whether they say it flat out or not). I've always had trouble connecting with the deeper themes of a story exactly because for the life of me I can't really connect deeper than what the novel/game/etc. is showing me. One game that kinda broke that away from me was Paranormasight, it's mostly a VN but it's on the shorter side, I binged it over 3 days after having it sitting on my computer for over a year, it was that good. After that I downloaded a bunch of classics (the When they Cry series, Raging Loop, The House at Fata Morgana if you want the recs). My next read is probably going to be Romance of the Three Kingdoms after I (surprise surprise) played the new Dynasty Warriors; the dialogue is basically lifted from the novel.
Also some stuff truly is just slop that gets passed for some sort of genius because it's big in scale. Like Skyrim's story is nothing to write home about. I remember getting to the Forlorn in whatever city they're in, and they're a popular Indigenous resistance movement to the Nords, which they consider to be invaders in their land. Lots of parallels, lots of interesting things to explore. But then the game explores none of that, and you kinda have to make up your own headcannon for what you want the Forlorn to be. It's good that they included this faction but that's about it. There's nothing special about it and it's okay to say so and not fawn over a piece of media just because it's a big name.
I think maybe we need the right piece of art to connect with to start exploring that side of ourselves. Ultimately for me what's interesting is the process of getting there, it makes me think about how the author/s must have gone about it. RoTK has genius writing because of the stakes at play. You follow the best commanders of the time and get a glimpse into their actual stratagems, way of thinking, etc. And of course there's a ton of characters in that book. Everyone in that book is a strong character and a genius in their own way, and they are pitted against each other, each standing on their own, and I'm just here thinking... how did the author even go about writing that? Like damn. Compare the strategy writing to Romancing Saga 2 (a mission I played recently lol the strategy made no sense and it was hailed by the characters as being a genius thing), or the Napoleon movie from not long ago - I remember critics didn't really like that Napoleon was just talking about strategy but you didn't actually see any of it on screen.
But I digress lol.
But as with everything, you must struggle with it if you want to deeply understand it, and you'll understand it in your own way. The story in Paranormasight stayed with me past playing the game and I started thinking about how they integrated video game mechanics into a VN, the themes that the game explored, etc. It led me to a discussion and I realized that good horror is centered around family drama, and beyond the "oooh scary monster" it tells a story of family drama. With that, I deepened my understanding of horror a little bit more, and it was the perfect story to get me thinking about the deeper themes of their story.
With all of that said, I have been exploring my artistic side more recently. I think a lot of it is simply age. With age, I started understanding some art better. As a kid I didn't like poetry at all, and now I might enjoy a verse or so if I come across it. But again there's a lot of slop out there too!
PS: a haiku I wrote a long time ago :)