Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Art is David Cameron

At a friend's earlier, discussing the below post on "innovation", I tried to articulate some of the issues I'd brought to bear, and realised she was very sceptical. "Art is basically conservative," she said. I'd not really thought of this; and probably had a degree of disagreement with it. But I knew what she was saying. In literature, it is not revolutionary, but reactionary - comfortable rather than chaotic; always after the fact of scientific or social upheaval, not a precursor to it; and recycling a literate past - therefore "looking back", nostalgic, conservative in that sense. "What a good artist can do," she added, "is extend the form."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

To play devil's advocate for a second - don't you think that the endless commentary on the creative process is inherantly stultifying?

Adrian Slatcher said...

Yes I do. But its lack is even more so. Besides its more interesting than other things.