>I never understood people who enjoy arguments rather than a simple disagreements

I mean, it all depends on context, but I got in a debate about Thomas Pynchon with a friend of mine last week at a bar that culminated in him raising his voice over the table and telling the rest of the group that I was an "odious motherfucker". Those kinds of heated debates about art are way more enjoyable than worrying about making sure everyone feels validated all the time.

Yelling and arguing about your opinion (if not literally, then in spirit) about a piece of art is a great time, as long as everyone is secure enough to know that saying someone's opinion is "bad" or "tragic" or "the worst thing I've ever heard" does not mean you think those things about them as a person.

Give me some Balzac, Lost Illusions-level shit-slinging about books! Tell someone they should have been sent to the guillotine for not liking Emile Zola. Tell someone they have an unhealthy fixation on 19th Century fuckboys after they tell you they love Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. Tell someone they should be tried at The Hague for not having read Toni Morrison. It's more fun that way.

Let’s bring this kind of Ebert energy back into arts discourse and maybe we can all start having a good time talking about this stuff again.