Art for What’s Sake, VII: The Pornography of Violence
I brought up movies only because many of my favorites have a fair amount of violence in them, and you seem to be lumping violence with pornography.
Author: Thomas Fleming
Art for What’s Sake, VI: The Effect of Art
“You’re getting a little carried away. Next you’ll be telling us there are wrong flavors of ice cream or saying “no meatballs with spaghetti.” Yeah, I saw the movie.”
Poem: Semonides on Women
This translation of a early Greek iambic poem has been put up as a text to accompany the podcast on canceling the classics.
Art for What’s Sake, V: Aesthetic and/or Moral Judgments
How could we possibly talk about movies as art, if we don’t agree on what art is. It would be the same as talking about movies without knowing what a movie is. And, if everything depends on how we feel or on what gives us pleasure, then there is no basis for discussion.
Art For What’s Sake? Part III: Questioning the Duck
You’re making an exception for country music, because you happen to like it. Are you seriously suggesting that a good song lyric is on par with great poetry?”
Who’s Sorry Now?
The American ruling class and its frontmen in the media are indulging in one of their periodic orgies of anxiety. How can a known terrorist have been allowed to enter the United States, make his way to Texas, and terrorize a synagogue?
Art for What’s Sake, Part II: Ducking the Question
At this point, however, we are not yet prepared to deal with the question of whether or not beauty is in the eye of the beholder or whether value is subjective or objective.
Poem: Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D.
This poem is one of Swift’s masterpieces. His savage wit, his ruthless dissection of human motives, his arrogance–and his self-contempt–all combine to produce a masterful satire.
