In a Nutshell
I do tend to think that artists, along with the rest of the world, have fallen a little too much in love with being provocative to the detriment of being wise.
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Me, I believe in truth. I think by trotting out a lot of untruth propaganda sold by professional politico's doesn't necessarily compare to a work of theatre which is meant to be a fictional representation of a real person, based on her real words.
Your position is that the authors of Rachel Corrie, et all, created the work simply to be provocative . . . but we don't really know their motives, any more than I know your motives for your provocative statement.
One man's butter is another man's bee . . . by which I mean, some things provoke me but not others, and vice a versa . . . so simply saying we shouldn't be provocative doesn't really, in a way, say anything. Be provocative to who, when and how?
If what you are saying is that we need a higher standard of craft in theatre, I would agree with that whole-heartedly (The Wedding Singer The Musical is set to open on Broadway soon and I weep for the trade I have chosen, I really do) but if your position is too many people are provoking too many people, I just shrug and say, "too bad" . . .
So that makes you...an iconoclastclast? Or just a fella who appreciates a nice cocoa, a warm fire and book full of Words of Unconfrontational Wisdom?"
Excellent question! I am a guy who believes wisdom is the result of an appreciation of complexity, ambiguity, and subtlety, combined with a passionate engagement with general principles and specific details. Wisdom is not melodramatic and Manichaean, and does not separate the world into heroes and villains. I don't believe that provocation has intrinsic value, it is not a stopping point; but it has value primarily as a starting point for new ways of seeing and thinking. Accusation is not an idea.
But again, who are these melodramatic Manicheans rushing in with j'accuse! stamped on their foreheads? (As Joshua said, offensive to whom? when? how?) What I've witnessed in the Corrie case, for example, is a fairly complex discussion, stamped all over with reservations and disagreements even between those who think that it is a troubling example of censorship.
If you were simply asking for rational, informed discussion which attempted to see past emotive swaying or manipulativeness on all sides, I'd be right behind you. But you label much of what I'd say was rational, disinterested discourse with this j'accuse tag, and make yourself emotive arguments about offence. If someone soberly makes a case, it may indeed be provocative to certain interested parties; but that doesn't mean that its main aim is in fact to cause offence. It may be that what is being argued about is in fact considered offensive in the first place.
$0.02
in a culture where people (read: the middle and upper classes) have so many choices for what to do with their time, why would they choose to be provoked (e.g. go to a modern art show [by which I emphatically do not imply: modern art is intrinsically provocative], or an accusatory dramatic performance)? it's one thing to make a bold statement. it's another to change the world with it. for that, people have to actually listen, and the content of the statement has to transcend the mere whir and clang of the american zeitgeist, which is so capricious that it's barely a useable concept. these aspects are not independent.
-- chuck
A population may choose to turn away from these museums and this art, of course, but it is their choice; it's not a fair validation of an art (at least to some lights) to say that it is a failure, or unnecessary to a culture, because it's rejected by a majority portion of that culture. And this is true not only for explicitly antagonistic, provocative art, some which can be described as in-yer-face and as whirry and clangy as any media-sodden zeitgeist. Feldman's music is provocative and antagonistic to the zeitgeist, as are Rothko's canvases, as are the elegies for the soul composed by Beckett, and Foreman, and even Adorno. Hard to say that in their provocations there is no wisdom, though I'm loathe to use the term.
One changes the world one person at a time.
I didn't mean to suggest that changing art and provocative art are mutually exclusive. It might be the case that good art is (or more plausibly: is at some time) provocative. However, provocative art is not eo ipso good, or even worthwhile. Put this way, I think Scott's point is hardly contestable.
-- Chuck
Alison asked, "Would you say then that you are wise, Scott?" Some wisdom accrues simply as a result of experiencing life; additional wisdome results from thinking about it; and still more results from thinking about the experiences of others. Am I wise? Wiser than a 20-year old, but not as wise as an 80-year old. I seek wisdom, and I believe this is true of most of humanity.
Don's scorn for his fellow man -- "the general population is categorized by apathy and an increasing lack of creativity" -- is what I think is poisoning the work of contemporary artists. I think what makes a work of art great is an artist's ability to empathize as well as criticize, and to stand among the people not outside.
I think Chuck makes a good point about our cultural moment: what distinguishes this time from what has come before is the sheer amount of entertainment available. When Ibsen was writing, theatre was the only game in town as far as storytelling was concerned, and so he could more easily afford a pretty snotty attitude toward the public; today, a similar attitude leads to half-filled 99-seat theatres and cultural irrelevance.
Provocation itself has become a cliched badge of honor, a false sign of serious intent, the first resort of artistic charlatans. However, if you define provocation as George does above -- as being the opposite of what dominates the zeitgeist -- then provocation serves as a balance, which can be valuable. Artists at the fulcrum point, judging which aspect of the society threatens to get out of control and providing a push in the opposite direction. This would require that artists maintain a fine and sensitive awareness of what is going on in the culture, and define their role as a responsive one. If our culture whirs and clangs, as Chuck says, then "quiet and communion" may be what is required of the artist, as George says.
Such sensitivity would require the artist to cultivate wisdom -- why be so scared of the idea?
What you label as scorn is merely the truth of the culture.
It's a nice, rosey colored world you propose, but the one I live in sits on it's collective ass and watches the Bush Administration march us down the path to hell, watches as we destroy the environment, and rewards films like "The Pink Panther (w/S. Martin)" for its creativity.
As an artist, I'm not as interested in converting the converted or preaching to the choir. I'm certainly not suggesting that provocation should overshadow artistry or even optimism any more than you are suggesting a world of nothing but 'Godspell.'
I don't think it's hair-splitting at all; there's no value judgment in "old" or "young". (I certainly wouldn't say that my friend, who herself has a spirit delightfully younger than mine, is any less wise by your definition than I am.) Unless you see it differently, of course.
George -- "Old" and "young" is as cultural determined as anything else. When life expectancy was 40, you were old at 25. What I say is that we should make our position explicit, define what we mean by "wisdom," and move on from there.
I do think, however, that art that flinches away from provocation because it fears to offend is in deep trouble.
And Alison, I'm offended. I think we all washed.
I was just thinking: artists are so often unwise, that unwisdom seems as important a component as any kind of wisdom (Muller's "poets must be stupid", which I think is a rather wise statement). And the best artists are never merely responsive; I think to be cast in that social role is to limit exceedingly what art does, as just another aspect of social discourse, instead of another kind of experience. Of course art responds, however obliquely, to the society in which it is created, but many other aspects go into that mix, including the artist's individual necessities. Ionesco - who was scornful of the whole idea of the "avant garde" - talked about art in those terms, as an individual necessity.
And I am certain that Sensation attracted a huge crowd -- our society loves a good fight, and I have no doubt that whoever produced "Rachel Corrie" will also have a huge crowd. But the question is whether all those people, once they were looking at the art, found it to be something they wanted in their life, something they would seek out again once the controvery was over. Exhibits such as Sensation turn art into pugilism, and do no favors for those who might want to do important work that is complex.
You have a somewhat simplistic take on Muller's statement that "poets must be stupid", which is at once ironic and a straight observation (poets are too stupid to be afraid of the same things that other people are - like, for instance, potentially offending audience members or authority, which obviously works against their self interest). Yes, of course artists have to be intelligent, but that is not by any means the whole of what's required; if mere intelligence were all that was required, then every faculty professor might be an artist, which is manifestly not the case. Artists are not only concerned with ideas, but with responding to the world around them through the sensual media they use - words, paint, rock, their bodies - in ways which bypass cerebral thinking, which focus on the materiality and sensual properties of the things they use, and which seek emotional as well as intellectual response. As Rimbaud said, "Science is too slow": mere knowledge is not enough. That, too, can be a kind of stupidity, if seen from certain points of view, such as utilitarian attitudes to art. And anyone who tries to live as a full-time artist in contemporary capitalistic society (as I do) really must be stupid.