10-11-2019, 05:23 PM
Something is not great simply because it is over-refined. If anything I recognize the need of classical musicians to rediscover folk traditions as a means of recovering some melodic coherence. This makes Chopin distinct, Dvorak delightful, and Bartok amazing. The works of Shostakovich are spotty, often because he was obliged to compromise musical languages for reasons of infusing it with propaganda -- but his more personal string quartets are sublime in part because he reaches to the Soviet tradition of folk music.
Even if we are subjected to huge quantities of bilge, we are in a second golden era of the cinema (which is about time, in view of the eighty years that have passed since the Golden Year (1939) of American cinema... I used to knock movies rich in special effects often a substitute for good writing, but Marvel Studios puts out movies that have some good dialogue and credible story lines. Pixar seems to offer animation that people of all ages, ethnic groups, and levels of sophistication can enjoy. We may be trending toward a new omnibus culture.
I wish that I could give such advice as "Listen to Sibelius' Sixth Symphony and call me in the morning"; if I could do that I might put many therapists out of business.
I can say this: we would be better off if more people got liberal education as education in knowing how to live. Even brilliant people who get strict technical education without the liberal arts tend to gravitate to the lowest common denominator of sex, drugs (if 'only' alcohol), material indulgence, and bureaucratic power.
Even if we are subjected to huge quantities of bilge, we are in a second golden era of the cinema (which is about time, in view of the eighty years that have passed since the Golden Year (1939) of American cinema... I used to knock movies rich in special effects often a substitute for good writing, but Marvel Studios puts out movies that have some good dialogue and credible story lines. Pixar seems to offer animation that people of all ages, ethnic groups, and levels of sophistication can enjoy. We may be trending toward a new omnibus culture.
I wish that I could give such advice as "Listen to Sibelius' Sixth Symphony and call me in the morning"; if I could do that I might put many therapists out of business.
I can say this: we would be better off if more people got liberal education as education in knowing how to live. Even brilliant people who get strict technical education without the liberal arts tend to gravitate to the lowest common denominator of sex, drugs (if 'only' alcohol), material indulgence, and bureaucratic power.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.