Rather than only relying on my own second-hand analysis, I decided to ask a real working artist. Sharon Knight: a perspective from a working artist The art hasn’t changed – the viewers of the art have. A book or movie or song that we find merely enjoyable in good times can suddenly be life-changing in bad times. They’re notoriously less interested in what’s good than they are with what will sell.Īnd I wonder if perhaps the rest of us are engaging in some selective memories. Thus we don’t have to wade through a lot of mediocre art to find the good stuff.īut the people who choose which art gets widespread distribution – especially TV and movies – are also the most insulated from bad times.
Perhaps bad times drive all but the most dedicated artists to do something else. The suffering but brilliant artist is another cliché that reflects the truth that artists are often wired differently from other folks… but also the truth that rest of us like enjoying art but we don’t like supporting the people who make it. Bad times are almost always bad for artists – all but the most commercially successful struggle financially even during good times. Like all clichés there’s an element of truth to it, but also some wide generalizations. It’s a cliché that bad times generate good art. Do bad times really make good art?Īnd that brings me to the title of this post.
It is wise to be careful with the entertainment we consume at any time, but at times like these it’s critical that what we watch, read, and listen to supports us and builds us up and doesn’t drag us further down into despair. Or better yet, I want something to inspire me to make my life better. I want something to make unpleasant things beautiful. I want something to take my mind off the difficulties of the world. When I walk into a theater or turn on the TV I’m not looking to be informed.
While we have an ethical responsibility to not look away from real world injustice, we have no such obligation when it comes to entertainment. Even if we only experience a bit of it ourselves we can’t help but see its impact on others. There’s so much unpleasantness, injustice, and abuse in the real world. I realized I’ve become very selective with my entertainment – almost fragile.
0 kommentar(er)
