Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Oh, and Also...

...one thing I was thinking of writing about was this article over on the AV Club by Steve Hyden about moral line-crossing in art. Hyden's plan, it would seem, was to expand on and confront the arguments in favor of no moral limits in art made by Ann Powers and Mike Barthel, who basically are in favor of aesthetic parameters and standards being all that matter, and that so-called "dangerous art" has a worth that should not be underestimated, and all that. Hyden says, though, that the question is positively covered in nettles, because while he agrees with Powers and Barthel in theory, surely we all have our moral/artistic thresholds, beyond which aesthetics simply isn't enough of a justification. He realized this by watching the Ben Stein documentary Expelled and the Larry the Cable Guy vehicle Witless Protection. Let me repeat, Expelled and Witless Protection are the films that made Hyden realize that aesthetics must not be the whole question. That something beyond -- I'll underline it this time -- aesthetics must come into play when discussing Expelled and Witless Protection. That as much as Expelled and Witless Protection might have to offer aesthetically, other elements needed to be factored into a critical assessment of boths works.

And beyond that, the article has an oppressive reek of "Yeah, but when I do it it's cute" political attitude, a bottle of which scent the commenters pick up and spray in the air like Glade. So fuck that shit.

3 comments:

John said...

So, yet more mealy-mouthed support for censorship "in theory" from a supposedly liberal-minded type, or did I miss some crucial "nuance" in his thinking here? It's possible, I guess, since I couldn't be bothered to read the whole thing.

bill r. said...

Well, I don't know about "support for censorship", as that never comes up. I think the point of the article was that Steve Hyden is the last guy in the world who should be writing an article like this. That's what I got out of it anyway.

jryan said...

I don't know about Expelled and Witless Protection, but Steve Hyden's article certainly needs something more than aesthetic judgement to have value.

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