" merging the self to objectivity" ?
That looks like a fine goal for the scientist -- but what about the rest of us
?
How can we tell which artist has been more successful at this task : Wyeth or
Conger or Baeza ?
If skepticism regarding the possibility of objectively making that judgment is
"an extreme form of subjectivity" - then so be it -- but even more extreme is
the "to-each-his-own" refusal to judge artists by any standards at all
(unless they are commercial or self-referential) -- which appears to be the
position of Mando and Cheerskep.
And does anyone -- even William himself -- believe that one paradigm of art
defeats and permanently replaces another -- the way that happens in science --
by proving itself to be more objective ? (wait --- Saul and his fellow
Marxists might concur)
Yes -- William has given us another fine speech (and isn't this a glorious
week for it!) -- and it quite eloquently justifies keeping the arts and
sciences together under the same institutional roof.
But don't hold your breath waiting for William to offer even one shred of
credible evidence that a landscape by Wyeth is somehow more sentimental than
one by Cezanne -- while Cezanne better "offers a metaphorical fusing of the
self as if other"
(and I wonder which "historical facts" undermine the American "altruistic
concept of democratic freedom" ? --- because this week, I think we've all
witnessed a very important fact that would confirm it)
***********
Miller's appeal to an extreme form of subjectivity is at the opposite end of
any worthy discussion of ideas. Sentimentality is a worthy idea. It deserves
analytical discussion, not only for denoting personal judgments but also for
its larger and more diffuse role in shaping cultural values. A worthy idea for
analysis is not necessarily a "good" idea, if by good we mean a benefit for
human identity.
American culture, including its most vulgar kitsch and popular tropes, is
essentially sentimental. What's interesting about this sentimentality is how
it clouds perceptions of reality and thus values by which to make judgments,
not only about art but about the whole matrix of human activities. For
example the American mythology of its founding that supports the altruistic
concept of democtratic freedom is baked in sentimental projections unsupported
by historical fact. In short, American culture never practiced what it
preached.
We create symbols of the real world in order to gain greater access to the
relationship between ourselves and the world. Such symbols are
interchangeable and metaphorical. They enable us to compare and contrast, to
perceive one thing as if it were another, to multiply our experiences and thus
our capacities to cooperate with reality. I think this is the same root for
all edeavors, whether scientific, speculative, or artistic. If so, then the
role of art is to gain access to reality. Sentimentality is a shroud over
reality
that directs perception inward to assuage the difficulty of assimilating the
self to the objective world. Sentimentality is the comforting blanket of
infancy, a retreat to a fantasy of the womb.
I think the best art mediates the self and reality. It offers a metaphorical
fusing of the self as if other, an objectification of the self as a
make-believe symbol of reality. It is a rebirth into the world.
The "space" of the art "object" then is a fictional space, what Winnicott
termed "potential space".
Perhaps it is impossible to eradicate our longing for the comforts of
sentimentality and perhaps some sentimentality is always present in our
efforts to accomodate reality. Perhaps to that extent it is good. But to
choose it over the more difficult and conflicted and ultimately rewarding task
of merging the self to objectivity is fatal to creativity and human
intellect.
What great art, literature, music is willfully sentimental? None!
What popular art, fiction, demagoguery, and daily prattle is sentimental?
Most!
Choose sentimentality for its own sake and you choose the lesser life.
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