

Its flaws often provide insights that a more polished and lauded work cannot.

Because it requires more generosity to appreciate, it gives the viewer or reader the chance to feel a kinship with it, to make it their own. But in its messiness or “wrongness” it can also be more inviting.

First, it has the element of surprise: we are less likely to know how we are supposed to interpret it. The neglected work has a number of advantages over the acknowledged masterpiece.
