Political art and politicized criticism
In art, experience is truth, and there is no greater sin than to say, "I know I liked that novel when I first read it, but it can't be good because it's inconsistent with my theory of fiction, so I guess I won't like it anymore." That's the trouble with political art and politicized criticism: they start with theory instead of experience. I can't think of a more efficient way to make bad art.'--Terry Teachout
from
Books Inq.: Au contraire ...quoted from
About Last Night: Inconstant reader.
Furthermore:
Progressives must start recognizing the spiritual poverty of contemporary secular humanism and reexamine the way that liberalism too often now automatically defines human aspiration and human happiness in reductively economic terms. If conservatives are serious about educational standards, they must support the teaching of art history in primary school--which means conservatives have to get over their phobia about the nude, which has been a symbol of Western art and Western individualism and freedom since the Greeks invented democracy.--Camille Paglia
from
Arion: Religion and the Arts in America.
Frank Wilson's blog Books Inq., is open for
comment on this subject, and references both the Camille Paglia and Terry Teachout articles. And comment preferred here within the forum is fine, certainly.
.