Who or what is Phlebas, please? Excellent points, Flatlander; and, your post illustrates eta's, and something I was trying to say way back: what is art, indeed, and who gets to decide? :-) Some people look at a painting of a big red dot and see all kinds of meanings in it; I'm afraid I would see 'a big ol' red dot' and nothing more. Back in about 1970 I bought a paperback called "The Poetry of Rock", and just loved it. Came across it some years later, and tossed it. I wonder if audiences who loved songs such as "Some Enchanted Evening" and "Don't Fence Me In"--and the writers of these songs--thought songs such as "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" were trash songs?