Are There Any Valid Criticisms? (aka Kalessin's Rant) - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Kalessin · 04-09-2002, 12:24 PM

Thanks as ever for your considered writing, Aiwendil [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

In answer to your comments (in no particular order) ... my 'fiddling while Rome burns' point was not that artists might try and produce politically influential art as a reaction to injustice - but that they might (and did) STOP "doing" art and actually take an active role in civil resistance. My example, the 'Artists' Rifles', were a volunteer regiment the anti-fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War. But that point is only one aspect to this.

IF I found out that 'Hamlet' was produced by chance by 10,000 monkeys it WOULD change how I felt about it. It would then be a work without any authenticity or act of insight, there would be no sense in which I could relate to the vision of its creator(s), it would not be part of any tradition or movement, and so on. It would be 'art' by coincidence alone - and if art can be manifested in that way, then a cloud, or mountain, is art - whether or not you consider it attractive.

Other than our little subtext on aesthetics, I think your point about Tolkien imitators and the provenance of the genre itself is one of the key insights in this thread, and certainly one I had not considered in such depth until you raised it. My compliments [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Peace

[ April 09, 2002: Message edited by: Kalessin ]

04-09-2002, 12:24 PM	#11
Kalessin Wight Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Earthsea, or London Posts: 175	Thanks as ever for your considered writing, Aiwendil [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] In answer to your comments (in no particular order) ... my 'fiddling while Rome burns' point was not that artists might try and produce politically influential art as a reaction to injustice - but that they might (and did) STOP "doing" art and actually take an active role in civil resistance. My example, the 'Artists' Rifles', were a volunteer regiment the anti-fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War. But that point is only one aspect to this. IF I found out that 'Hamlet' was produced by chance by 10,000 monkeys it WOULD change how I felt about it. It would then be a work without any authenticity or act of insight, there would be no sense in which I could relate to the vision of its creator(s), it would not be part of any tradition or movement, and so on. It would be 'art' by coincidence alone - and if art can be manifested in that way, then a cloud, or mountain, is art - whether or not you consider it attractive. Other than our little subtext on aesthetics, I think your point about Tolkien imitators and the provenance of the genre itself is one of the key insights in this thread, and certainly one I had not considered in such depth until you raised it. My compliments [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Peace [ April 09, 2002: Message edited by: Kalessin ]