NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30/NN_1992_30.iso/spool/misc/writing/3887

Text File | 1992-12-13 | 2.7 KB | 55 lines

Newsgroups: misc.writing
Path: sparky!uunet!stanford.edu!agate!rsoft!mindlink!a710
From: [e-mail] (Crawford Kilian)
Subject: Re: support for the arts in the US
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 17:53:16 GMT
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (Usenet)
Lines: 44

Here I've always thought I was a big philistine, bravely spurning government
grants I'd never get anyway, but following this thread has continued my
education...

If the market is really such an omnipotent arbiter for artists, why shouldn't
it also determine what happens in such areas as physics research and military
spending? If no one wants to buy Physical Review on the newsstands, why
should it appear? And if physicists, at least, want to read it, why not run
ads for cigarettes in it, instead of expecting taxpayers to cover the expense
of physicists indulging their bizarre private interest in the sex life of the
quark?

And why blow all that money on taxpayer-supported firearms? Why can't the
army pay its own way? After all, the whole point of a military is to protect
a way of life and national identity; doesn't art have the same goal, and
isn't it supposed to cover its own costs? So we could have millionaire
patrons who form their own armies and sell them to the highest bidder, just
as authors sell their work to whoever will buy it. Or, if that seems too
right-wing, bands of mercenaries could organize themselves and share the
proceeds of hiring out to customers (Condottieri R Us...).

The point of making money is to buy the time and freedom to do things that
don't make money--the things that really interest you because they enable you
to explore and express your real identity. (Unless, of course, you suffer
from arrested deveopment and your identity is completely entangled in making
money, period, for its own sake.) Art springs from expression of identity,
and sometimes it also becomes a marketable commodity (just like Evel
Knievel's stunts). That doesn't mean the only legitimate form of art *must*
be marketable.

Writers in particular should be aware that writing strictly for the market
means, essentially, writing pornography; not much else sells strictly on its
own merits. Even newspapers and magazines with current news must use their
editorial contents to lure people to read the ads between the stories. (And
in the case of newspapers, the ads are often for strip joints, "escort"
services, and other forms of slightly less self-deceiving prostitution.)


--
Crawford Kilian   Communications Department   Capilano College
North Vancouver BC Canada V7J 3H5
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