lol It's okay, Anonymous, you can say "rat's ass", we're all sailors here.
The bio is actually a really balanced, non-hagiographic and exhaustively-researched job o' work. Anyway MJPM thought it was worth adding that angle to the discussion, and she was a founder of the AIVS, so... [shrug]
I think any serious discussion of an artist's work can't preclude that discussion, whatever our Barthesian visitor insists a proper approach should be.
Moreover, there is a certain tendency to be selective about the application of such an argument. So for instance it's apparently okay to discuss all sorts of extra-curricular things about Wagner, because in the end they're not really all that irrelevant. But Verdi, who -- if you take the MJPM line -- was every bit as Type A (and evidently had no problem with using the word "Jew" as a negative epithet himself) must be spared at all costs? Because why? As much as I can agree that there are limits to biography -- and as much as I am a fan -- I'm not sure I can agree with that.
"illustrates perhaps better than any other the fact that the man [Verdi} could be kind of a prick at times"
ReplyDeleteAs if anyone should give a rat's hindquarters about that...
lol It's okay, Anonymous, you can say "rat's ass", we're all sailors here.
DeleteThe bio is actually a really balanced, non-hagiographic and exhaustively-researched job o' work. Anyway MJPM thought it was worth adding that angle to the discussion, and she was a founder of the AIVS, so... [shrug]
I actually do give a rat's ass for things like that. Oeuvre = the person + the output. Art doesn't come disembodied and out of thin air.
DeleteI think any serious discussion of an artist's work can't preclude that discussion, whatever our Barthesian visitor insists a proper approach should be.
DeleteMoreover, there is a certain tendency to be selective about the application of such an argument. So for instance it's apparently okay to discuss all sorts of extra-curricular things about Wagner, because in the end they're not really all that irrelevant. But Verdi, who -- if you take the MJPM line -- was every bit as Type A (and evidently had no problem with using the word "Jew" as a negative epithet himself) must be spared at all costs? Because why? As much as I can agree that there are limits to biography -- and as much as I am a fan -- I'm not sure I can agree with that.
Damn right.
ReplyDelete