Sure theres no end to the disasters that could choose to unfurl themselves on the world. The harvest is ripe in a Black Country pear orchard. Seasoned hands settle to familiar tasks and the ritual education of newcomers. But corrupted lands yields a bitter crop. The weather turns; friction mounts and pesticide begins to fall...
#4484923 in eBooks 2012-12-04 2012-12-04File Name: B00E3DKKMS
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. The Value of the Arts from a Reactionary StandpointBy Dr. Laurence RawOccasionally a book comes along that is so gloriously wrong-headed in its arguments; it is a pleasure to read.Writing from a conservative standpoint; Angus Kennedy argues that the arts in Britain have suffered from a general malaise known as egalitarianism; better defined as the desire to make "high" culture accessible to everyone. This has been achieved through various strategies including planning exhibitions where historical continuity has been sacrificed in favor of a more eclectic approach to display; of providing exhibitions in hitherto depressed areas as a means of bringing people together and forging a community spirit. Alternatively arts curators have sponsored schemes to take fine art; theater and other forms direct to the people; especially in depressed areas.Such strategies; in Kennedys view are wrong; as they are inspired by the notion that "art" per se has to be perceived as "good" or beneficial for everyone; and hence warrants state involvement. Often arts policies are deliberately imposed on people to little or no effect; other than to improve statistics and thereby justify continued government funding. In the end art itself becomes debased; as it simply becomes a vehicle by which apparatchiks can account for their existence at the heart of Britains cultural policy.Kennedys arguments reveal an astonishing ignorance of British history. In the post-1945 era the Arts Council was created with the specific purpose of rendering fine arts accessible to others by taking them round the country on tours. While some experiments undoubtedly failed; this policy brought theater to communities which had never seen live shows before; and thereby stimulated a renewed interest in drama as an art form. The subsidized theater also provided an outlet for new and innovative writing; without it; there might never have been that flowering of British drama that characterized the "Angry Young Man" movement of the late Fifties and early Sixties. Subsidized theater also fulfilled a valuable morale-boosting function during World War Two; when luminaries such as Sybil Thorndike and Moira Hess toured some of the most bomb-damaged parts of the country; often at great personal risk to themselves.Basically Kennedy has an intellectual bee in his bonnet and wants to voice his opinions against it. He resents the idea of pluralism; that each person might have their own judgement that differs from someone elses; thereby producing cultural relativism. This he dismisses as a strategy of "the Left" (whoever they might be) to deconstruct the value of the arts as arts and thereby permit the untalented to flourish in their chosen fields. Kennedy would prefer the restoration of "high" cultural values; where there is an accepted historical canon of work - theater; art; music; and the like - that everyone accepts as "great;" and derives profit from it. He also argues for the idea of discrimination; that some educated people will always be able to understand a great work of "art" better than their less educated colleagues.The fact that such values are inherently class-based seems to elude him. He would rather consider the arts as an eacute;litist phenomenon that requires effort to be understood; the kind of effort obtained through a privileged education and access to the best exhibitions in the metropolis. The idea of taking art to the people is anathema to him; as it is an example of the "nanny state" trying to suppress individual self-determination.The book is also exclusively Brit-focused. Kennedy reveals little if no knowledge of how the arts work in other countries - in Europe; the Middle East; or Asia; If he had expanded his research; perhaps he would not have come to such ludicrous conclusions.