Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

Classicism: Accessibility. Comprehensibility. A town hall should look like a town hall. Clarity. And a conviction that a work of art should delight and move -- that the artists is obligated first and foremost to entertain, though not merely to entertain.

Romanticism: Expression. The individual. Often to move even without first delighting. Experiment. In other words -- you go to teh artist to worship, he doesn't come to you to entertain.

Incidentaly, I enjoy a fair amount of Romantic art, and by no means consider myself a Classicist.

Many people have been -- we've so soaked ourselves in the Romantic view of art that for many people, Romatnicism is what art is. If it ain't self-expressive and experimental, it ain't simpyl ain't art.

I do find that the Classicists are easier to talk to. They know damn well that there are many conceptions of art, and many kinds of art. (Asian and African conceptions of art, for instance, are often very different than the Western Classicisim/Romanticism thing.)

Romantics on the other hand are often impossible to talk to. Or I find them impossible to discsuss with. You enter a bizarre universe, like a cult. They have the answer to everything, and if you're not on board, then you're cast out. It isn't that Hey, there's romatncisim and that's cool and that's what appeal to them. It's that the romantic (self-expressive, experimental) approach is art, and only those things that are playing that gaem qualify as art. They're so soaked in this view of things that they literaly don't seem to see what's going on in other kinds of art, or elese they read it entirely in their own terms.

I can't avoid mentioning that in my experience this parallels talkign with righties and lefties. (Your mileage may differ, of course.) In my exepreince, righties know that lefties exist and have their own point of view, and generally speaking theyr'e semi-familiar with it and wish it well, even if they marvel about how childish it can seem. They shrug: oh sure, that. Many lefties in my exepreicne are quite different. They spew and vent -- they feel crossed. You simply aren't a good person if you aren't a leftie, because ... well, they're one and the same thing.

I wish the conversation between left and right were better. (I've reached that age where you seldom root for one side in a debate; your perspective has gotten tot hepoint where you're basically rooting for a better-quality debate.) And I wish the convestqation between classicist and romantics were of better qulaity. It is, after all (as Camille Paglia points out)what the Western-Civ arts conversation is. I have this sneaking suspeicion that many people don't realize just how much the Romantic p-o-v has prevailed. If it ain't the kind of thing taht we deem to be art -- and if it doesn't represent the kind of approach we deem as the art approcah -- then it isn't art. A big part of the reason I root for classicism at this point isn't because I'm such a fan. It's becasue I'm rooting for the romantic monologue to end (it does get tiresome, and it steers us all into stupid dead ends), and for the general arts conversation to start up again.

Speaking of which, the Ann Coulter thing, thanks to Daze Reader.

Best,

Michael

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