"The arts are not just instantaneous pleasure - if you don't like it, the artist is wrong. I belong to the generation which says if you don't like it, you don't understand and you ought to find out"
About this Quote
Barrymore’s line is a polite slap delivered with a stage smile. It draws a hard boundary between art as consumer product and art as a form of literacy. The first half sketches the modern impulse she’s pushing back against: the idea that art is “instantaneous pleasure,” a vending machine where dislike automatically means the maker failed. That’s not just a critique of taste; it’s a critique of entitlement. If art exists to flatter you, you become the judge and the artist becomes customer service.
Her counter-claim - “if you don’t like it, you don’t understand” - isn’t merely snobbery, though it flirts with it. It’s an insistence that difficulty has value, that confusion can be an invitation rather than an insult. The subtext is theatrical: Barrymore came from a world where audiences were trained, not coddled, and where “getting it” often required context, attention, patience. She’s defending a covenant between performer and public: you show up ready to meet the work halfway.
The generational framing matters. Born in 1879, she lived through mass entertainment’s takeover: film, radio, celebrity culture, shorter attention spans, bigger markets, louder opinions. Her “you ought to find out” is the key phrase - a democratic demand disguised as an aristocratic one. It suggests effort is not a barrier to enjoyment but the route to it, and that art can expand the audience rather than simply satisfy it.
Her counter-claim - “if you don’t like it, you don’t understand” - isn’t merely snobbery, though it flirts with it. It’s an insistence that difficulty has value, that confusion can be an invitation rather than an insult. The subtext is theatrical: Barrymore came from a world where audiences were trained, not coddled, and where “getting it” often required context, attention, patience. She’s defending a covenant between performer and public: you show up ready to meet the work halfway.
The generational framing matters. Born in 1879, she lived through mass entertainment’s takeover: film, radio, celebrity culture, shorter attention spans, bigger markets, louder opinions. Her “you ought to find out” is the key phrase - a democratic demand disguised as an aristocratic one. It suggests effort is not a barrier to enjoyment but the route to it, and that art can expand the audience rather than simply satisfy it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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