[lit-ideas] Re: Marxism and Political Correctness [some reflexions on Mr ...
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 08:22:05 +0000 (GMT)
Here it is again. Mike last week, now JLS. One of those mysterious posts that
simply re-post another post without further comment. In this case, it seems
it's not just sent by mistake, a premature electronic ejaculation, as JLS has
put in a "JL:" at the beginning (or has he? was that in RP's post? Can't be
faffed to check). But who will explain this recurring phenomena that has made
me stop and stare all these years now? The grave beckons and yet still this
greatest mystery of all remains beyond...
D
Who said he wouldn't let it lie
England
________________________________
From: "Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx" <Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, 1 March 2012, 5:04
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Marxism and Political Correctness [some reflexions on
Mr ...
In a message dated 3/1/2012 1:44:06 A.M. UTC-02, rpaul@xxxxxxxx writes:
JL:
"Whatever "good art" is, it is not achieved by being or teaching that
which is politically correct. Someone might argue that being Politically
Correct
in belief (?) trumps "good art.”
I don’t understand what belief’s got to do with it. Is it that a
vegetarian might say
that a graphic painting of a slaughterhouse was not ‘good art,' that it
didn’t move him;
and that indeed it repelled him, so that he couldn’t, short of being
subjected to the
psychological techniques used in A Clockwork Orange, ever come to see
through the veil
of his convictions and find it ‘good?’
Maybe the reason he cannot find it good is that it tries to make art by
depicting the
suffering of animals, and he can find no ‘good’ in that. Yet, suppose he
finds himself
attracted to a woman who would eat Kobe beef morning, noon, and night and
who’s sickened
by the mere thought of nasty carrots under the filthy earth. And
seductress that
she is, she brings him to give up his vegetarianism. Will he thensee the
merits of the
‘slaughterhouse painting,’ or will they continue to be invisible to him?
But is vegetarianism a fair analogy to Marxism, when it comes to
evaluating art?
I don’t see why not. They both exemplify the critical maxim that ideology
trumps all…
…which is a silly view; that critics and intellectuals thought it
worth discussing is strange. It leads to such idiocies as ‘That
would be a great novel, if only it weren’t so politically incorrect,’
or, ‘It’s ideological correctness is what makes it so powerful.’
There’s nothing, though, about a painting of a Stakhanovite that makes
its colors or its contours or its balance or its striking form
undergo a change depending on whether its viewer is a True Trotskyite
or a Stalinist.
Niagara Falls will be Niagara Falls, even if Santorum wins the election.
JL says some things about ‘morals’ and about Philippa Foot’s thought
as it might pertain to them. I’ll try to comment on them someday.
Robert Paul
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