Greetings Philosophers:
The Sunday New York Times usually has one or two articles
relevant to the MOQ. Today was no exception.
In the Books section was a review of the collected essays of
dance critic Arlene Croce who wrote for the New Yorker magazine
and considered to be the �pre-eminent dance critic of her
generation.�
The reviewer writes: �She is a classicist who believe that great art
is not about ideas, but beauty. The whole of her anti-ideology can
be found in a deceptively casual remark she slipped into a 1975
review of New York City Ballet�s Ravel festival:
�The audience for the Ravel festival probably included a lot of
people who prefer acting to dancing � who like ballets that make
you think. I never saw a good ballet that made me think.�
The reviewer continued: �This lethal two-liner was self-evidently
intended to enrage those painfully earnest modern-dance buffs
who believe that art is valuable only to the extent that it makes the
world a cleaner, better-lighted place. For those who thought
otherwise � who believed, like Greenberg and Croce, in art for
pleasure�s sake � it was both electrifying and liberating to see
such cheeky words in print.�
Much of postmodern art is art with a message. Applying the MOQ
structure, we see the intellect attempting to �devour� the higher
aesthetic level with politically correct ideas, just as it attacked the
lower social level with programs and plans.
This battle is of fairly recent vintage. Before the 70s, art was
generally held to be above the word, illustrated by movie mogul
Jack Warner�s famous reply when asked to OK a script with an
ideological slant: �If you want to send a message, send a
telegram.�
Now art is all about sending messages, usually about some
victim or other. In other words, art has become propaganda.
Oh, those intellectuals. You gotta watch �em every moment.
Platt
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