"In this regard, maybe golf courses can be discussed in terms of their "strategic elasticity"
(I know, as if we need another term. Like a hole in the head...)"
No Peter, I think the term "strategic elasticity" might be a pretty fine one; that is so long as someone can get enough meat on its bones that might allow others to recognize some vaguely similar meaning of it.
I just read this thread (as well as the other thread "Accessibility of Architecture") that was hyperlinked into a post on this thread.
Through it all I felt the participants were sort of just engaging in a fairly interesting exercise in mental masturbation about GCA while showing off their supplemental knowledge of literature, painting, music, or even building architecture. And throw into that stew what appeared to be some competitive tendency to write words and phrases that sound deeper than they may be!
But who am I to question other people’s thoughts, sensibilities, emotions about these kinds of things and what their experiences with them mean to them? I’m nobody----that’s who!
It seemed to me that throughout all that there is always this automatic tendency amongst the discussants to "COMPARE" GCA (to find all the similarities) to those other art forms and their various (and interesting) experiences with it----while perhaps the better and more intelligent thing to do would be to "CONTRAST" GCA (to find the important differences) with those other art forms, not the least reason being in those other art forms there is nothing remotely involved in them or about them such as hitting a golf ball on a large physical and natural canvas (an art form?) and ALL THAT ACTUALLY DOES AND CAN MEAN TO ANY GOLFER (compared to reading a book, looking a painting or listening to music).
Thank God, Jim Sullivan whipped this entire subject and discussion back to that particular reality (contrast rather than force comparison or similarity) in posts #14, and #15, immediately followed by a post by Doak that put some real meat on the bones of what Sully had just suggested.
In my opinion, on this basic subject Doak's post #16 just might be the single best and clearest ever seen on this website. For those who really care about stuff like this, I'd suggest they print out Doak's post and keep a copy of it in their golf bag or on one's bedside table or wherever else one tends to actively think about these kinds of things in some effort to understand them better!
But back to your term “strategic elasticity”, Peter. I think it’s a fine term given the right general meaning. What does it mean to you? Then I’ll tell you what it means to me at the moment, although I can preface right now that to me most of its meaning can be found in Doak's excellent post #16.