From: "Ann Klefstad" <klefkal-AT-cp.duluth.mn.us>
Subject: Re: an entire universe of delicate, complicated things
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 08:34:00 -0800




----------
> From: George Free <aw570-AT-freenet.toronto.on.ca>
> To: avant-garde-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> Subject: Re: an entire universe of delicate, complicated things
> Date: Wednesday, March 17, 1999 5:29 AM
> 
> On Wed, 17 Mar 1999, Ed Atkeson wrote:
> 
> > Title was "Defrocking the Artist" if I remember right. The author's
name
> > is Lind. You can probably find it at http://www.nytimes.com/books/
> > Ed Atkeson
> > 
> 	...yet another neo-liberal attack on the autonomy of the arts 
> (and, by extension, of science). ...preaches a "middle brow" aesthetic.
> 
> George
> 
Oh, George--couldn't it just be liberal? Isn't that term sufficiently
opprobrious? And the "autonomy" of the arts has been simply their
isolation, hasn't it? And if you think science is autonomous, I have a
large Roebling-designed piece of transportation architecture to sell you--

The *relative* autonomy of science and art, their role as priestly
dictators of culture, is derived from a European aristocratic model. Could
we at least entertain ideas of a model more appropriate to a culture of
universal literacy and broad cultural ownership?

Yours from the land of the middle brow (or short headfore, as my 5 yr old
would say),

Ann Klefstad


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