ababol wrote:She didn't suffer a breakdown in the exhibition because the people wanted to understand. She did because they started asking questions. Or, in other words, because they didn't understand.
So she didn't break down because people wanted to understand, she just broke down because the people didn't understand so they started asking questions...Because they wanted to understand. The need to explain art only arises when someone feels a need to understand that same art. That they didn't understand isn't an issue. They could have just enjoyed the pictures without understanding, to hell with meaning or intent, and Rin would've been fine. But they didn't because they
had to understand it, so they badger her about it. Thus it is their need to understand, moreso than their lack of understanding, that creates trouble. In Rin's good end, Hisao still doesn't understand her but it's not a problem because he also stops
needing to understand her. He just accepts that he doesn't quite get her. The lot at the exhibition don't accept that, preferring to pile questions on top of her.
And Rin isn't expressing a feeling in her art. She's expressing
herself, in the most literal and complete way. Imagine trying to express the entirety of a human being in a painting. Plenty of art can be boiled down to a given feeling. Sadness, anger, joy...Rin's can't because she isn't painting feelings. Most artists are taking words or thoughts and putting them into paint form so when people ask questions, they can usually answer by drawing from the original thoughts. For Rin, who does not communicate often by words and only barely seems to understand even her own thoughts, the painting is
all there is so when questioned, there are no answers that common people would accept. Imagine if instead of thinking in words, you thought in blobs of color. That's Rin. It isn't some particular feeling or idea turned into a painting, the painting is the idea itself. It's Rin. And like Rin, to strive for understanding is to ruin it. Those who get it will get it (Hisao, good end). Those who do not won't (Nomiya, and probably most at Yamaku). Those who do not, but
insist that they must, are the ones who cause problems (Hisao, bad end...And everyone at the exhibition).
I love the interpretation of Pac-Man where he's a just a lowly worker retrieving golf balls left all over the course by the rich masters and the ghosts are all previous workers who got conked on the head and killed by incoming golf balls in the line of duty.