viva transgression! I really hope lefties like Joey and I can still write transgressive stuff that packs a punch and takes on societal ills thru its transgression! Will be writing on this soon.
So, has anyone listened to the lyrics of Kanye's "Heil Hitler"? He is not praising Hitler.
Having had his bank accounts frozen and being prohibited from seeing his kids, Kanye is saying the fascists have taken over. He is NOT praising them, he is dissing them. Frankly, at various times, I've said "Heil Hitler" in a similar vein.
Transgression against norms became difficult when all preexisting norms had been repudiated, some time early in this century. Like all revolutions, the winners turned into a bureaucracy and tried to enforce their new dogma. That invited new transgression against the new dogma, using some of the same tactics of provocation and excess that the current power-holders employed when they were still outsiders and rebels. The old taboos went away. The new taboos -- never say the N-Word, always use "Hitler" as a synonym for pure evil not a historical personage, and recoil from any Nazi imagery, pretend that words you don't like are actual violence -- practically begged for the full-scale Johnny Rotten treatment. Whether something has merit as art is, perhaps unfortunately, not strongly associated with whether it promotes, or seems to promote, whatever moral or theological program we prefer. Genius can make great art which is also corrupting or serves evil ends; mediocrity and banality are often used in the service of the wholesome and life-affirming, which is upsetting to many of us, but it is always that way. And of course good or great art can be ambiguous across other dimensions, like morality or social utility. Perhaps the biggest problem with all of this is that any functioning society has a lot of children, and a lot of unsophisticated people who cannot grasp nuances. These people have to be protected. This is felt as constricting by artists and people who have some esthetic education. But you should not bring a nine year old to the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, or a young mother of modest education, but a good and kind person, to something that can be viewed in part as pornographic but which has artistic merit, because she won't get it. This is a permanent problem that can only be mitigated but never solved. Keeping the transgression in some kind of Bohemia and allowing cross-border trade with the rest of society is one approach which is probably the best way to do it. Good post, many important ideas. Pardon a perhaps overly long response.
Thanks for taking on this subject. I need to read it again but I think the drive to understand this and where it fits in our human struggle is worth the time..at least some time.
viva transgression! I really hope lefties like Joey and I can still write transgressive stuff that packs a punch and takes on societal ills thru its transgression! Will be writing on this soon.
So, has anyone listened to the lyrics of Kanye's "Heil Hitler"? He is not praising Hitler.
Having had his bank accounts frozen and being prohibited from seeing his kids, Kanye is saying the fascists have taken over. He is NOT praising them, he is dissing them. Frankly, at various times, I've said "Heil Hitler" in a similar vein.
Blah blah blah, old course nobody listens to the lyrics. Born in the USA glaring example.
Transgression against norms became difficult when all preexisting norms had been repudiated, some time early in this century. Like all revolutions, the winners turned into a bureaucracy and tried to enforce their new dogma. That invited new transgression against the new dogma, using some of the same tactics of provocation and excess that the current power-holders employed when they were still outsiders and rebels. The old taboos went away. The new taboos -- never say the N-Word, always use "Hitler" as a synonym for pure evil not a historical personage, and recoil from any Nazi imagery, pretend that words you don't like are actual violence -- practically begged for the full-scale Johnny Rotten treatment. Whether something has merit as art is, perhaps unfortunately, not strongly associated with whether it promotes, or seems to promote, whatever moral or theological program we prefer. Genius can make great art which is also corrupting or serves evil ends; mediocrity and banality are often used in the service of the wholesome and life-affirming, which is upsetting to many of us, but it is always that way. And of course good or great art can be ambiguous across other dimensions, like morality or social utility. Perhaps the biggest problem with all of this is that any functioning society has a lot of children, and a lot of unsophisticated people who cannot grasp nuances. These people have to be protected. This is felt as constricting by artists and people who have some esthetic education. But you should not bring a nine year old to the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, or a young mother of modest education, but a good and kind person, to something that can be viewed in part as pornographic but which has artistic merit, because she won't get it. This is a permanent problem that can only be mitigated but never solved. Keeping the transgression in some kind of Bohemia and allowing cross-border trade with the rest of society is one approach which is probably the best way to do it. Good post, many important ideas. Pardon a perhaps overly long response.
Thanks for taking on this subject. I need to read it again but I think the drive to understand this and where it fits in our human struggle is worth the time..at least some time.