Totally agree. Your list has some artists I will have to check out. The classical music scene has ossified. There used to be Edgard Varese, Harry Partch George Antheil, Charles Ives, Luciano Berio, etc., now it's just stuff that makes no sense unless you read pages of program notes. As someone once remarked, there's only so many ways you can arrange 12 notes. Shit, now that I think about it, I'd add your dad to that list. With the added paradox that he was trying to make nickels and dimes while turning out product that was kind of revolutionary in its own way.
The sad news is that what you witnessed in Bryant Park is not just an NYC phenomenon. It's happening out here in the hinterlands, as well. Here in Portland, I work for a governmental agency that manages several theaters, and it's a race to the middle. The Broadway shows we host are well-done but hardly controversial...and certainly nowhere near obscene.
There are (very) small theaters willing to do some very interesting work requiring considerable thought from its audience, and that's wonderful, but financially they're always on the edge. Portland's city government collects a $35 per head arts tax from each resident, but that money goes overwhelmingly to mainstream, inoffensive arts groups.
It's a race to the middle because it's all about the Benjamins. Even in a place as Progressive as Puddletown, offensive and obscene are on the outside looking in. People don't enjoy being uncomfortable; they like art that they can leave feeling good about themselves and the world around them. They want art that's escapism, not confrontational...and that's what gets donations.
Over time, mainstream art has become increasingly banal. Whether we're talking about movies, music, books, theater, or visual arts, it's all a race to the middle. Don't get me wrong...not all of what's in the middle is bad, but there's little that pushes the edge of the envelope anymore.
Stacey, I need to unsubscribe for a while. Sorry, but every penny has to be accounted for in this moment. I don't see an unsubscribe button anywhere. Can you help? Much love and appreciation for your take on the world, especially the last one on more obscenity. We are too nice. Love you, Betsy
Irony: writers who are stuck with words, grammar, syntax, punctuation and use them, as you do, so very well, but find it impossible to "bend the material" to do something obscene with these parts, except to write something obscene (but see below). So, we can only ask - beg - artists who work in other media to do what we can't.
Paradox: If the whole of cultural is obscene, then it is impossible to make obscene art because it has no potential for disturbance.
The only stuff that has the chance to arouse our numbed souls is that which is exquisite.
obscenity...always relative to cultural norms. today bruce, serrano, morrison, manet, burroughs, and even mapplethorpe, madonna….hardly would make the cut. add karen finley, Buñuel, and to a lesser degree: dali, brecht, arizona's david therrian, herzog, kinski in their day. circumcision piercings or tatts??? allin…obscenity, or just extremism? maybe simply memorialized less for any phenomenal cause than by simple sensationalism for its own sake, and that is neither art, nor enough. and such an amazing writer you are about it, regardless, Stacey.
You are in the 5% Stacey. You might have seen this floating around the internet..." 1% control the world. 4% are their puppets. 5% know and try to wake the 90%. The 1% use the 4% to prevent the 5% from waking up the 90%". You go girl!
I went to a Marylin Manson show years ago that was a culmination of GG Allin and Alice Cooper meets the pope in a dark alley. It was obscene, provocative and mind altering to say the least, and I loved it! It was artistic anarchy, anti establishment, and a middle finger to religious indoctrination. Men in torn up fishnet stockings, blood letting, simulated masturbation with dildos, burning crosses, i was in rock n’ roll heaven. The righteous backlash from the conformist puritans was obscene as well, attempting to quash freedom of expression under the guise of saving our children from such blasphemy. Pushing boundaries and questioning societal norms is healthy from the status quo.
I've mentioned several times in the past Sam Delany's quip that the two most important classes of people in a society are its criminals (I think "outlaw" would be more appropriate here) and artists, because they are the only ones able to challenge that society's values.
What you wrote reminded me of the banality of art under the Nazis in Germany. Anything even remotely avant garde was not only to be shunned but actively extirpated. While we've not yet tipped fully into fascism (that happens only if Trump is re-elected), the quiet terrorism of monetized value is doing the job.
(Marcuse spoke of two kinds of terrorism: the violent kind with guns and bombs, and the subtler kind built around communal acceptability and expectation. I believe this was in "One Dimensional Man.")
Totally agree. Your list has some artists I will have to check out. The classical music scene has ossified. There used to be Edgard Varese, Harry Partch George Antheil, Charles Ives, Luciano Berio, etc., now it's just stuff that makes no sense unless you read pages of program notes. As someone once remarked, there's only so many ways you can arrange 12 notes. Shit, now that I think about it, I'd add your dad to that list. With the added paradox that he was trying to make nickels and dimes while turning out product that was kind of revolutionary in its own way.
The sad news is that what you witnessed in Bryant Park is not just an NYC phenomenon. It's happening out here in the hinterlands, as well. Here in Portland, I work for a governmental agency that manages several theaters, and it's a race to the middle. The Broadway shows we host are well-done but hardly controversial...and certainly nowhere near obscene.
There are (very) small theaters willing to do some very interesting work requiring considerable thought from its audience, and that's wonderful, but financially they're always on the edge. Portland's city government collects a $35 per head arts tax from each resident, but that money goes overwhelmingly to mainstream, inoffensive arts groups.
It's a race to the middle because it's all about the Benjamins. Even in a place as Progressive as Puddletown, offensive and obscene are on the outside looking in. People don't enjoy being uncomfortable; they like art that they can leave feeling good about themselves and the world around them. They want art that's escapism, not confrontational...and that's what gets donations.
Over time, mainstream art has become increasingly banal. Whether we're talking about movies, music, books, theater, or visual arts, it's all a race to the middle. Don't get me wrong...not all of what's in the middle is bad, but there's little that pushes the edge of the envelope anymore.
Stacey, I need to unsubscribe for a while. Sorry, but every penny has to be accounted for in this moment. I don't see an unsubscribe button anywhere. Can you help? Much love and appreciation for your take on the world, especially the last one on more obscenity. We are too nice. Love you, Betsy
Irony: writers who are stuck with words, grammar, syntax, punctuation and use them, as you do, so very well, but find it impossible to "bend the material" to do something obscene with these parts, except to write something obscene (but see below). So, we can only ask - beg - artists who work in other media to do what we can't.
Paradox: If the whole of cultural is obscene, then it is impossible to make obscene art because it has no potential for disturbance.
The only stuff that has the chance to arouse our numbed souls is that which is exquisite.
See: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/12/magazine/andrew-wylie-interview.html
obscenity...always relative to cultural norms. today bruce, serrano, morrison, manet, burroughs, and even mapplethorpe, madonna….hardly would make the cut. add karen finley, Buñuel, and to a lesser degree: dali, brecht, arizona's david therrian, herzog, kinski in their day. circumcision piercings or tatts??? allin…obscenity, or just extremism? maybe simply memorialized less for any phenomenal cause than by simple sensationalism for its own sake, and that is neither art, nor enough. and such an amazing writer you are about it, regardless, Stacey.
Nicely put. It brought to mind Mae West, who pushed obscenity boundaries with abandon in the 1930 and 40s and flaunted it.
You are in the 5% Stacey. You might have seen this floating around the internet..." 1% control the world. 4% are their puppets. 5% know and try to wake the 90%. The 1% use the 4% to prevent the 5% from waking up the 90%". You go girl!
I went to a Marylin Manson show years ago that was a culmination of GG Allin and Alice Cooper meets the pope in a dark alley. It was obscene, provocative and mind altering to say the least, and I loved it! It was artistic anarchy, anti establishment, and a middle finger to religious indoctrination. Men in torn up fishnet stockings, blood letting, simulated masturbation with dildos, burning crosses, i was in rock n’ roll heaven. The righteous backlash from the conformist puritans was obscene as well, attempting to quash freedom of expression under the guise of saving our children from such blasphemy. Pushing boundaries and questioning societal norms is healthy from the status quo.
I've mentioned several times in the past Sam Delany's quip that the two most important classes of people in a society are its criminals (I think "outlaw" would be more appropriate here) and artists, because they are the only ones able to challenge that society's values.
What you wrote reminded me of the banality of art under the Nazis in Germany. Anything even remotely avant garde was not only to be shunned but actively extirpated. While we've not yet tipped fully into fascism (that happens only if Trump is re-elected), the quiet terrorism of monetized value is doing the job.
(Marcuse spoke of two kinds of terrorism: the violent kind with guns and bombs, and the subtler kind built around communal acceptability and expectation. I believe this was in "One Dimensional Man.")
Great. That is all.