September 3, 2007

• Why the arts matter

  There isn’t much point in having the arts at all unless we have them
  with all their interrogative power.

  They are not cozy or ornamental.
  Critics have collaborated in making them seem cozy, assuring us that
  they won’t hurt a bit. If the arts don’t hurt, why have them?

  It’s only
  modern vanity which supposes that everything can be known or that only
  what is knowable has a claim upon our interest. The artist and the
  priest know that there are mysteries beyond anything that can be done
  with words, sounds or forms. If we want to live without this sense of
  mystery, we can of course, but we should be very suspicious of the
  feeling that everything coheres and that the arts, like everything
  else, fit comfortably into our lives.

  -Denis Donoghue

  • 8:42 am
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