 But presentations are ill-suited objects of critical attention in any case. They’re too numerous and variable to ground objective criticism, and thus too unwieldy to make criticism of any kind worth the effort. In addition, taking aesthetic objects to be presentations conflicts with much of the practice—that is, many of the remarks—of critics themselves. None of this would be news to Beardsley—he says as much himself in several places—but it does mean that he shouldn’t have walked down the phenomenalist road as far as he did.