Essay Page 10
 
 
society) and yet also true to the artistic principles they have committed themselves to, which in many cases are antidemocratic to the core~but often they cannot face this fact, and it hobbles them.

Anyway, that's how I've come to see it. High art in a democratic society is a contradiction, and it can only flourish by deception, often self-deception, and by waiting until democracy collapses (as democracy always has in the past) and the return of some sort of aristocratic society that will honor the existential commitments of high art.

Boy, I didn't meant to get so involved, but your message got the brain cells going.

Really good to hear from you~will you be in SF anytime


soon? I owe you a lunch!

Chris

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Thanks, Chris.

I do hope to come to San Francisco in the next three months. I'll let you know as I firm things up.

Excellent points~many I hadn't thought of, or didn't realize. I like the "outsider now the insider" observation.

Maybe the sterility that I find in academic art is basically caused by its loss of the only "soul" that it really ever had~the soul of the rejected, the misunderstood, the