I dont think its ugly at all.You can impress with ugliness
. It should be It is modern literati. one gets used to it. You are judging this tree with rules which don't apply here.
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It looks very nice from the different angles, I actually like the back more then the front. It feels more dynamic somehow, on the picture anywayz. The Jin Alain is talking about doesn’t bother me at all though but I’m not sure what you mean by modern literati actually, I’m making myself a twin trunk spruce literati, how about that for modern?
Ok, now I understand what you mean. In that case mine will indeed not be modern as it will be more subtle/ feminine then impressive. That’s more the way I tend to style my trees. But I do like strong impressive trees as well.This is not enough to make it modern. To understand modern one first has to understand traditional.
In a nutshell a literati bonsai is a slim tall tree which has a lot of character and obviously is very old. It is old enough to not care any more about others. Therefore it does not show off. Deadwood d and curves are subtle. Understatement is the name of the game Usually it looks quite natural.
Modern literati is more the opposite, a slim old tree which wants so impress, it has lots of curves often bizarre curves. It often has lots of deadwood , sometimes fancy deadwood. It wants to impress the viewer, it can be aggressive. Subtle and modest it is not. Often it does not look natural, while very impressive.
Yes, you do have the ''right'' to change the meaning of words of course, (there is no law), but what I meant is that regardless of what you call something and regardless of how many people listen to you does not make it true. Literati is a tree which gives you a certain specific feeling. It has nothing to do with subtlety although it can be. There can be no such a thing as ''modern literati.'' Literati is a type of tree which nature produces (and sometimes people can stumble into it if they are lucky) and as we know nature just does not have fashion periods. Only human activities do. I realize you have a lot of influence Walter, but that does not mean too much when we are concerned with the study of natural forms.Whether someone had the right to define and alter the meaning of terms only history can show. It is also a question of power. It makes a big difference who says something. With hindsight there was always someone who said it before. But he never made an impact. He who makes that impact changes the world a bit and therefore has the right to do it. 'Give them the right' - sure I have the right to define and redefine terms. Why? Because people are listening to me.
It would not be the first time in the bonsai art that I have given a term a new meaning and that is here to stay.
The point is that because it has an oversize jin and is ''aggressive'' does not make it modern.