Comments on: Artist and Community http://www.amconmag.com/schwenkler/2009/06/24/artist-and-community/ Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:22:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Crunchy Con http://www.amconmag.com/schwenkler/2009/06/24/artist-and-community/comment-page-1/#comment-4734 Crunchy Con Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:50:34 +0000 http://www.amconmag.com/schwenkler/?p=3346#comment-4734 <strong>Art and the world...</strong> I just ran across a really smart point by JL Wall, in response to last week's long Eminemmy discussion about the relationship between art, morality and community. Excerpt: The matter of wondering where the limit should be drawn is nothing...... Art and the world…

I just ran across a really smart point by JL Wall, in response to last week’s long Eminemmy discussion about the relationship between art, morality and community. Excerpt: The matter of wondering where the limit should be drawn is nothing……

]]> By: Rock, Beauty, Scissors « Around The Sphere http://www.amconmag.com/schwenkler/2009/06/24/artist-and-community/comment-page-1/#comment-4714 Rock, Beauty, Scissors « Around The Sphere Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:54:03 +0000 http://www.amconmag.com/schwenkler/?p=3346#comment-4714 [...] JL Wall: So there are beautiful things in the world that probably ought not to have been made – though that does not affect the fact that they are, especially once they are granted enough distance from the moment of their creation, beautiful nevertheless. Morality and craft cannot be separated. “Deed is belief.” (I associate the thought with Will Herberg, though I can’t find it, and I doubt he said it so succinctly.) I’m hardly trying to imply that the Beatles are responsible for the Manson Family murders, but Rod has a point: art (and “art”) exists in the world, and its creators have the obligation to recognize that it will have consequences, for good or for ill – and that they will not be able to foresee all of those consequences. The artist who would cut himself off from the morality of his work is the artist who would cut himself off wholly from the world, from being. But that’s something which we simply can’t do. By being, we are in the world — a world in which morality, if one is to acknowledge its existence, permeates life, which consists of deeds that can therefore not escape the question of morality — and because we are in the world, to shirk the matter of morality is to shirk responsibility. [...] [...] JL Wall: So there are beautiful things in the world that probably ought not to have been made – though that does not affect the fact that they are, especially once they are granted enough distance from the moment of their creation, beautiful nevertheless. Morality and craft cannot be separated. “Deed is belief.” (I associate the thought with Will Herberg, though I can’t find it, and I doubt he said it so succinctly.) I’m hardly trying to imply that the Beatles are responsible for the Manson Family murders, but Rod has a point: art (and “art”) exists in the world, and its creators have the obligation to recognize that it will have consequences, for good or for ill – and that they will not be able to foresee all of those consequences. The artist who would cut himself off from the morality of his work is the artist who would cut himself off wholly from the world, from being. But that’s something which we simply can’t do. By being, we are in the world — a world in which morality, if one is to acknowledge its existence, permeates life, which consists of deeds that can therefore not escape the question of morality — and because we are in the world, to shirk the matter of morality is to shirk responsibility. [...]

]]> By: JL Wall http://www.amconmag.com/schwenkler/2009/06/24/artist-and-community/comment-page-1/#comment-4650 JL Wall Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:11:06 +0000 http://www.amconmag.com/schwenkler/?p=3346#comment-4650 I picked it up originally because it has an essay in it on mythology that I read several years before and quite like. And because, by way of my odd intellectual pedigree, one of my high school teachers knows, to some degree or another, Bringhurst. There's a good deal to do with translations/translating, mythography, and Bringhurst's musings on language and meaning. (I like those things, which makes sense, given my academic interests.) There are a handful of essays I didn't get through, but the rest were all of the sort to leave me thinking about things. I picked it up originally because it has an essay in it on mythology that I read several years before and quite like. And because, by way of my odd intellectual pedigree, one of my high school teachers knows, to some degree or another, Bringhurst. There’s a good deal to do with translations/translating, mythography, and Bringhurst’s musings on language and meaning. (I like those things, which makes sense, given my academic interests.) There are a handful of essays I didn’t get through, but the rest were all of the sort to leave me thinking about things.

]]> By: H.C. Johns http://www.amconmag.com/schwenkler/2009/06/24/artist-and-community/comment-page-1/#comment-4649 H.C. Johns Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:00:12 +0000 http://www.amconmag.com/schwenkler/?p=3346#comment-4649 Interesting set of parrallels between that last paragraph and Weber's take on the political vocations... Both the artist and the politician stand at the intersection of responsibility for consequences and moral/aesthetic intent, but finding a balance there is maybe the chief question of both's existence. Also, is that "Everwhere Being Is Dancing" book worthwhile? I was toying around with buying it last night (no joke) and decided against it. Interesting set of parrallels between that last paragraph and Weber’s take on the political vocations… Both the artist and the politician stand at the intersection of responsibility for consequences and moral/aesthetic intent, but finding a balance there is maybe the chief question of both’s existence.

Also, is that “Everwhere Being Is Dancing” book worthwhile? I was toying around with buying it last night (no joke) and decided against it.

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