From: <kenneth.mackendrick-AT-utoronto.ca>
Subject: Re: What's wrong with mainstream sensibilities?
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2001 01:57:46 -0500 (Eastern Standard Time)


On Tue, 02 Jan 2001 17:51:38 -0800 Karena G <radchick7-AT-hotmail.com> wrote:

> What great art can come out of a prosperous and happy life?

Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.
Will Smith, "Gettin' jiggy with it."

If art is consolation, then I think it is high time we abolished the conditions 
which make art necessary (as consolation).

> Look at the  crap that comes from those kind of people versus the art that 
comes from  say, Polanski, who has had tremendous amounts of pain through out 
his life,  or Hitchcock who had a tortorous childhood.

If art is an expression of suffering, we probably should not turn around and 
betray the artist by making suffering the future ground of art. Imagine what 
Hitchcock could have done otherwise... I simply refuse to accept that 
domination and torture serve as the most fertile ground for beautiful 
aesthetics.

> While it may not be something we would like to believe true,(that one must 
suffer to be a great artist) I think for the most part it is.

Then, to hell with it. The point isn't simply to interpret movies, the point is 
to change them. I've heard too many times that "If I didn't write, paint, 
create... I would go mad, or die." Aside from being rather cliche, almost 
embarrassingly so, isn't this a problem?

popcorn opinion,
ken



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