Two Poems by Lionel Johnson
These two poems of Lionel Johnson, included by his friend William Butler Yeats in a little volume of 20 Poems of Lionel Johnson, attest to Johnson’s deep sense of the sacred.
These two poems of Lionel Johnson, included by his friend William Butler Yeats in a little volume of 20 Poems of Lionel Johnson, attest to Johnson’s deep sense of the sacred.
Of the first generation of top Hollywood directors—Griffith, DeMille, Stroheim, Walsh, Curtiz, Chaplin, Dwan, Fleming, Brown, Lubitsch, Sternberg, Ford, Borzage, Vidor, Keaton, Hawks, Wellman, Capra, McCarey… W(oodbridge) S(trong) Van Dyke II (1889-1943) is the most unjustly forgotten and underrated.
“So,” Charley said after a pause, “the purpose of art—at least in the sense that you are using the word—is not simply to have an effect on the audience or reader, even if the effect is good?”
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.
“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.”
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.
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?”
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.
An untechnical conversation on the meaning of art, set in a Middle American saloon with pop music blasting over the speakers.