: : I heartily agree. However there are some who would discount anything which is popular (e.g. LotR) as being without merit, simply because it is popular.

: There's art, and there's entertainment. Art can be entertaining, sure, but I think to qualify as art it has to appeal to something more than the lowest common denominator.

Well there's lowest common denominator and then there's rubbish like Mark Rothko and Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin (I could go on but I won't). One man's art is another man's dirty bedlinen.

But yes, something can provide entertainment to many and yet be totally devoid of ny artistic merit whatsoever. But who is to judge?

: : De gustibus non est disputandum

: "You can't argue taste"?

: Ilien

You can't argue about taste (De gustibus). It loosly translates into the modern phrase "There's no accounting for taste"

Gungnir