Re: RAT (not about) COLUMBINE

[Ezra Buzzington <jonoh1@juno.com>]

Ok, <now> i getcha. Thanks for that. Very nicely put.
Jonathan

On Sat, 24 Apr 1999 17:36:58 -0700 (PDT) Audie McCall
<audiemccall@yahoo.com> writes:
>You're absolutely right.  I was reading something into
>your comment that you hadn't intended, and your
>explication of the "Good art is evil" aphorism is
>compelling and clear.  What's more, I find myself
>agreeing at something mere minutes ago I balked at. 
>(Words are wonderfully stupid that way.)
>
>As for the question of whether "good" art means moral,
>or aesthetically excellent, I think the reason I have
>difficulty distinguishing the two is that for me,
>aesthetically sound art is moral 'cuz by definition it
>"gets the job done".  And moral art-- as opposed to
>moralizing art-- is beautiful in that fights the
>"good" fight.  Now, I can already sense a lot of folks
>going for their Nietzsche holsters, i.e. "Whatever is
>done for love (read art) is beyond good and evil."  Or
>their Lao Tzu, "Under heaven all can see beauty as
>beauty only because there is ugliness.  All can know
>good as good only because there is evil.", and I am
>deeply sympathetic, especially to my buddy Lao Tzu,
>but I think once we step "beyond good and evil" we
>have to step further, beyond Nietzsche, off the
>mountain top and back into the world.
>
>Artists are servants, not masters.  If we can offer
>wider perspectives to folks in desperate need of
>seeing the world in an ever-broadening way (tao), we
>have done our moral duty.  If we slap at our
>audiences, taunt and tease them, prod and push them,
>they will shut down or lash back.  I consider such art
>immoral, as I do art that "fiddles while Rome burns". 
>
>
>Spacing out staring at some time-worn pottery, Keats
>blurts out: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty./That is
>all ye know on earth and all ye need to know."  At
>first glance this thought can seem facile, insipid,
>hopelessly naïve.  But if we’re talking true beauty,
>the beauty of ever widening realization and
>understanding, then nothing could be more profound.
>
>
>--- Ezra Buzzington <jonoh1@juno.com> wrote:
>> 
>> On Sat, 24 Apr 1999 15:08:10 -0700 (PDT) Audie
>> McCall
>> <audiemccall@yahoo.com> writes:
>> >--- Ezra Buzzington <jonoh1@juno.com> wrote:
>> >But I'm
>> >> confused by your statement
>> >> that  "our job as artists becomes to engage bad
>> art
>> >> with good". Do you
>> >> mean "bad" ( and good) in an aesthetic sense, or
>> >> moral?
>> >> Good art is evil,
>> >> Jonathan
>> >
>> >I'm not convinced of the difference.  Perhaps you
>> can
>> >enlighten me.
>> 
>> I don't know. Maybe. Do you mean  "good" as in
>> aesthetically
>> pleasing/socially redeeming/emotionally fulfilling
>> -whatever floats the
>> viewers subjective boat? Or "good" as in a state of
>> being. It's good to
>> help. It's bad to kill. Like that?
>> >
>> >"Good art is evil."?
>> 
>> >
>> >Are we beating our head against the semantic wall
>> here
>> >for our amusement?  Fiddling while Rome burns?
>> 
>> An actor knows that when they are playing an "evil"
>> character they must
>> search for the reasons s/he behaves as s/he does and
>> they must find
>> something "good" to cling to in building a
>> three-dimensional character.
>> Otherwise they're doing melodrama or somesuch. All
>> good art is inherently
>> evil because humankind has the potential for evil
>> within the soul. It
>> must be present at all times otherwise there is no
>> balance. And I
>> certainly don't mean to be beating my (as oppossed
>> to "our") head against
>> anything. I'm just asking a question. And my friends
>> will tell you that,
>> though I am easily amused, I don't generally indulge
>> myself. Oh, and, I
>> can't play the fiddle.
>> >
>> >"Freedom is slavery."  Right back at ya!
>> 
>> Okay. Sure. I guess. But I think you're reading
>> something into my writing
>> that is completely unintended.
>> On the run,
>> Jonathan
>> 
>
>_________________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
>
>

___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]