I happen to agree that Miller should not be tossed off the list. Free speech and all that. It's just that I can't deal with his outlook anymore and would prefer a list that is more attuned to cooperative intellectual discussion instead of using a faux discussion as a vehicle to insult and ridicule others and what they seem to represent. Without me (his targeted symbol for contemporary art, art professors, museums, the art meritocracy and class bias, and so much more) his commentaries may reveal something more interesting. I admit I see him as the Glenn Beck of art and aesthetics.
I'm becoming more interested these days in a broad range of culture issues, the intersection of myth and reality: The American sense of virtue vs free market materialism, and how these affect the arts and the identity of the artist. I'm less interested in the formal approach to art and aesthetics. Whether the search is for the universal attribute of the aesthetic or the universal attribute of the aesthetic experience is to me the same vain quest. I think the identity of the aesthetic is largely a matter both more simple and more complex. More simple because it does not exist independently either objectively or subjectively; more complex because it is a dynamic product of many configurations of societal/historical/ forces that subsume individual experience and formal analysis. I'd call it the social history of aesthetics. wc ----- Original Message ---- From: imago Asthetik <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thu, March 4, 2010 6:14:49 PM Subject: Re: I've had it I find this suspension of Mr Miller troubling. Please do not misunderstand me. Mr Miller has a definite tendency to mix ad hominen remarks with his usual argumentative tendencies. This said, Mr Conger simply over reacted here. I believe that it would be a sincere loss were Mr Conger to unsubscribe, but I must say nontheless, that if he is unable to dismiss Mr Millers usual nonsense the way one would shrug off a combative, sullen student, then perhaps he should simply delete Mr Millers emails instead of reading them. whether we agree with Mr Miller or not, he has of late been one of the most active posters, and has been offering his own reading notes of books he finds worthwhile. We may disagree with his tastes, but this is still a service, and we should not dismiss him or his efforts to keep this list vibrant so easily. Suspending Mr Miller for the sake of Mr Conger sets a bad precedent. At the very least, it undermines in principle the radically democratic potentials of the medium, and suggests to those following silently that they might be served better by remaining silent. There is no need to debate the point further, and I will (indeed have no choice but to) abide by the administrators decision. I simply wanted to register my dismay over a series of temperamental and panicked overreactions. On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 3:42 PM, Boris Shoshensky <[email protected] > wrote: > I am talking of all of us. We are all theoretically inclined thinkers > of different ability. We all had mean spirited moments of weakness. > Meanness is a helplessness and should be fought by knowledge, patience > and educated power of persuasion, logic based on facts not ego. > Boris Shoshensky > > On Mar 3, 2010, at 1:16 PM, Boris Shoshensky wrote: > > > to put Miller off the list for two weeks are not aesthetically sound for > theoretically inclined thinkers. > > Miller isn't a theoretically inclined thinker. Far from it. And mostly, > he's > a > mean-spirited participant and he aims most of his snide comments at > William, > and Saul, and Cheerskep, at me too, and even you Boris and Mando and Kate > and > .... > > > ____________________________________________________________ > Small Business Tools > Learn how to save time and money. Click to find what tools your business > needs > now. > > http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2241/c?cp=jcXzJ2U4ODXV9r8Sre3RwwAAJ1Gc > l_zTaptgNR5c8Mer1v9kAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARMQAAAAA=
