“What, then, is the real relationship between art and trade? Agonistic? Complementary? The question, suggesting something like a creative sanctum shimmering a few meters above the room in which you punch a clock or schedule a meeting, supposes that aesthetic experience is categorically different from…”Tagged: How To Think, Philosophy, Psychology, Art Work, Art and Work
“Once upon a time, artists had jobs. And not 'advising the Library of Congress on its newest Verdi acquisition' jobs, but job jobs, the kind you hear about in stump speeches. Think of T.S. Eliot, conjuring 'The Waste Land' (1922) by night and overseeing foreign accounts at Lloyds Bank during the day,…”Tagged: How To Think, Art Work, Art and Life, Artists, Philosophy
“Lavin’s thread distilled the ridiculousness that ensues when bookish men perform interest in women’s inner lives out of a misbegotten sense of nobility.”Tagged: Male Authors, The Male Gaze, The Female Form, Objectification of Women, Female Personhood
“The canon is lousy with authors who yearn to be admired for their sensitivity to the full range of female personhood, be that personhood luscious, pert, or swelling coyly against a sheer camisole. These are writerly men confident that they’ve nailed women’s psyches, all because of how…”Tagged: Male Authors, The Male Gaze, The Female Form, Objectification of Women, Female Personhood
“'Girlhood' often feels like a baffled attempt to comprehend something impossible: How did a person given to climaxing joyously in the bathtub end up trapped in a 'twilit mode of passivity'?”Tagged: Girlhood, Growing Up, Growth, Feminity , Being a woman