I want to get a book for my mom that provides some basis for developing general artistic taste (something that she...

I want to get a book for my mom that provides some basis for developing general artistic taste (something that she lacks). I find it difficult to find common ground for explanation of these matters to her because of our conflicting assumptions. My only request be that it be fairly short, accessible, easy, etc. Something that will spark her interest and help her develop a basic framework of criteria for understanding works of culture (of all kinds).

Dubliners

Even simpler

I was also thinking non-fiction or something philosophical
It can even be sort of pop philosophy so long as it's not misleading pop philosophy

I think that Dubliners would go over her head. She has problems with ADHD, and I think that she would get bored with Dubliners rather quickly and not understand "the point" of these stories. She needs to be taught how to read before she can read Dubliners is sort of what I'm getting at.

>still OP
Something that provides easy to understand, "real world" arguments in support of good art
I think that I'm asking for too much here: a humanities education in one short easy book.
But I don't know what to do. I tried to get her To the Lighthouse last Christmas, and she read like 15 pages and had no idea what was going on. That was rather foolish of me.

But yeah, I'm sort of asking for an apology for more genuine artistic creation for dummies.
(Something along the lines of that Schiller aesthetic essay with simpler prose)

I don't think "how to have good taste" is a book and if there is I don't think it would be very good. I think it's better to be more specific in the subjects.

E.H. Gombrich's Story of Art is a great accessible introduction to art history and art in general.
Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer is a great book about close reading, and might help her appreciate literature more.
Aaron Copland's What to Listen for in Great Music is a great intro to music theory.
Mark Cousins's The Story of Film, the book and the tv series, is a great history of the form that's more than a history of Hollywood flicks.

Although she'll have to care in these subjects in the first place or you'll just look like an autist forcing his interests on his poor mother.

It's not necessarily about wanting to force my interests on my mother. It's more about wanting to help her be more aware about the shitty culture that she consumes daily. She is very much spooked by the relativist cancer of "to each their own." She doesn't possess the simple critical language necessary to see art in the simplest of systematic approaches. She doesn't know how to articulate why one thing is better than another thing. It's really that simple.

I'm looking for the sort of simple book that will start to open her eyes (wake her from the dogmatic slumber, if you will), and if she happens to have her interest sparked in these genera of culture (lit., music, visual art), then that's great.

i like how OP assumes we all know his mom better than him.

i think she'd like phaedra. give her phaedra. it's like a soap opera but by seneca.

Okay. Maybe Better Living Through Criticism by A.O. Scott is what you're looking for

thank you
This is exactly the sort of text that I was looking for.

Smack her across the face with an artwork, that'll show to not to appreciate art

stop trying to teach women to read

You're an asshole and you should hug your mother and have a merry fucking Christmas with her and get her a doo-dad and spend time with her.

You're a deep, deep asshole user.

sounds like a horrible fucking gift to be honest

If you can't accomplish this yourself, with words, then perhaps you should be focusing on your own education?

Be a good son. Get her a good gift.

It's not necessarily that I'm incapable, but I think that it would be better to have someone else do the explaining for many reasons. She'll trust the book man more because people who write books automatically have some authority in her mind. It's also difficult to find the appropriate time and place for conversations of this sort. You can see why these complications are removed if she's facing these questions alone in comfort with a book. She'll have the private time and comfortability to work through these ideas with the social anxieties removed.

Why are you being such an insufferable cunt? OP simply wants his mom to appreciate art

I already got her a doo-dad. I don't understand why you assholes have to be so autistic about this request of mine. I'm wanting to do this out of desire to connect more with my mother and to help her understand the things that I'm passionate about: things which she feels alienated from. I want to help remove this alienation.

Another reason is that she has criticized me for I don't know how long for being too "critical" about everything. This criticism of her's began at a time when I was incapable of articulating why exactly I felt x way about y thing, and, in short, I was a cringy angsty little boy about it, and now it's hard to fall out of those same tendencies with her because of how relationships and dynamics with people develop over time (I'll be a certain way around my friends and strangers, then I'll fall back into the same tendencies that I have been accustomed to around her unconsciously). I'm sure that many of you all have similar experiences with this, and I would appreciate some more constructive feedback. Thanks

delete this

Hi artie
You're a good son

You could perhaps try audio books. If she struggles to sit down and read tell her to listen to someone else read it to her while she does the cooking or whatever. I don't think the book you're asking for exists though.