Something that I read earlier this evening that is worth noting:
...The Phaedrus and Plato's Seventh Letter reveal his unease about the nature of language - a worry that has surfaced again in our own day. He doubts whether the written word can convey fundamental ideas; the interplay of minds that marks a spoken discussion is absent. The written word is at the mercy of knaves and fools, apt to be twisted or misunderstood. Thus art corrupts because 'it apes a sort of insight, a unified vision, which in its true form is a spiritual achievement.' The work of art can mislead us because we think it has 'a unity, a perfection, which is not really there.' It is 'a spurious short-cut to "instant wisdom"' (Murdoch, 1993, p. 19). This leads to the startling conclusion that good art can be even more corrupting than bad art. In an age when works of art are often regarded with an almost religious reverence, these doubts are worth remembering.
Something to think about you artist.
2 comments:
Good thing we've got deconstructionism to teach us that the work of art is emphatically not a unified whole, but a collection of sometimes contradictory voices and images. Someday when it's not 1 in the morning we should talk… :P
Very interesting. Speaking of bad art, however, your background makes it FREAKING difficult to read your text sometimes, haha. Just sayin'.
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