“One hundred and fifty years after Flaubert lived, and seventy-seven years after the publication of Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, the publishing industry increasingly resembles the façade of Hollywood, a world where only certain kinds of artists get their names on the marquee. To boot, before acquiring a book, publishers have already begun to factor in the potential media persona of a publishable author.”
Tag: 08.06
Rembrandt Reconsidered (400 Years Later)
“As Rembrandt’s 400th birthday is celebrated this year with blockbuster exhibitions, symposia, festivals, tours, and performances, and as museums the world over lucky enough to own his works set them forth with pride, it seems unthinkable that the man we consider one of the supreme geniuses of world art was dismissed so contemptuously in his own time. But Breughel was only repeating what critics and theorists had been saying about Rembrandt’s art for years.”
The New Brazilian Dance
“In Brazil dance has emerged from religion and folklore within the heart of the community or from outsiders: teachers or visitors drawn there by the opulence of the Carnival or other cultural events. They stayed and influenced the culture with their ideas and teaching methods. In staying and sharing, they, too, were influenced by the culture.”
Can Friendships Survive Ideas?
Principled disagreement can be a powerful force that tears apart a friendship. “These days, such principled disagreements tend often to involve ideas, and to be endemic among supposedly educated people and especially among intellectuals. The ideas themselves are as likely as not to involve politics. Even more than differences over religion, political disputes seem to ignite ugly emotions and get things to the yelling stage quickly.”
Can Opera Be Viable In Today’s Society?
“Can an art form that is averse to controversy survive in this kind of society? Doesn’t it risk seeming to be in the care of dull people, equivocators and cowards? There is an argument, a powerful argument, that opera should stand apart from the baser trends of society. If the larger culture thrives on simple oppositions, on sound bites, not serious discussion — on voices talking over each other at a fevered pitch — then opera, and art, should go elsewhere.”