This keeps popping up & I've had a few discussions in the comments that kind of clarify how I feel about the whole thing.

I don't think art is inherently smart. Or not smart. I think the way we engage with it can be thoughtless or thoughtful, shallow or deep. Smart or...not. https://twitter.com/mostlybree/status/1277703816805322757

I think people out here writing amazing essays analyzing what we might subjectively consider the shallowest pulp trash in the word are engaged in a far more intellectually rigorous pursuit than someone rotely consuming A Very Important Book.

Some people don't have the range to be smart about books that don't tell you how smart they are on every page.

That's a THEM problem.

And we can engage with the same piece of art in different ways. I have had AMAZING conversations about the implications of Jupiter Ascending and America's culture of forced birth.

I've also screamed BEES RECOGNIZE ROYALTY and then collapsed in a glitter bomb glee pile.