David Zaig said:
"Maybe the following example will make it clearer: only a few years
ago, people felt free to eat foods high in fat. They simply ate the
foods they liked, not knowing what the consequences were. These
people thought they knew what they were doing--that their choices were
rational. Similarly, artists today think they know what they're
doing. They unquestioningly follow customs and trends that are set
out for them by society's take on the role of the artist and
activities appropriate to the role. In my opinion, artists must
strive to get beyond the constraints of the given, to define a new
role for art in relation to the new knowledge and the circumstances of
the late twentieth/early twenty-first century."
Hi David,
Not to be difficult, I just had to point out an irony in your
example. The USA has been obsessed with anti-fat propaganda for
decades. Countless new studies point to the fact that higher fat
diets are not always the cause of health problems, and are even
associated with improved health, but people (like you) and even many
nutritionists refuse to believe the new studies, despite their depth
an breadth.
When I went on a diet that drastically increased the amount of fat I
ate, I lost 20 lbs. and my cholesterol went down. My mother had high
cholesterol and she started eating tons of eggs and she's had low
cholesterol ever since.
According to your analogy, wouldn't the folks who believe the fat
propaganda be the ones who "unquestioningly follow customs and trends
that are set out for them," in spite of overwhelming evidence to the
contrary?
It is a fact that fat consumption drastically decreased in the last
two decades and it is a fact that obesity and heart disease have
greatly increased. If we are to utilize the "new knowledge and the
circumstances of the late twentieth/early twenty-first century," we
must question the aesthetic and scientific party lines of the
culturati.
Maybe next week, fat will be bad for us again, and that's fine. The
point of my post isn't to tout the virtues of a high fat diet, your
analogy just opened the door to make a point about the invisibility
and potency of paradigms, artistic or not. The evidence may not
always be what we expect or want to hear, but that isn't a compelling
reason to ignore it.
Best wishes, Glenn
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