*Spots nice deep thread and rubs hands with glee as the old brain-cogs squeakily start accelerating*
Quote:
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The art that has come down to us from past eras (not that Picasso's era was all that long ago) has been distilled through time, with only that art judged valuable being preserved. Thus, almost all of the works of art (whether paintings, novels, symphonies, etc.) we know from past eras are, if not great, at least well-made in one or more aspects. The bad art simply hasn't survived
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Ah, but....There are many mitigating factors to consider in this, such as oppression of the one who produced that piece of art, or repression of the ideas contained therein. For example, consider when art by women was not generally accepted by the cultural establishment and was quite frequently judged to be worthless. We do not know just how much that was produced was eventually lost to us.
I once studied literature of the 1930's, and when researching a paper, I discovered that there were many novels written by working class people, with stories centred on their experiences of poverty and unemployment, only a handful of which are now available in print. Tracking some down, I found they were fantastic novels, speaking of an experience which is not often spoken of today. Many more, however, remained out of print, simply as they were being published by small independent houses, and not everything could be profitably reprinted. I wished I could read some of these lost novels, as they sounded good.
Fordim, I am now thoroughly depressed. I always rant at people that there is no real 'alternative', that anything we do is ultimately driven by business and media and general 'powers that be', even that really obscure shouty CD we buy would never have been available if someone didn't think we would 'buy in' to it, and that if I went off to live in a cave and live off nuts and berries it would be part of the whole machine in that I was just reacting to it..... I thought it was just me being curmudgeonly and
old, but it appears my negative grumbling has a real name.
