| Does art reflect its time? | |
| Posted by: peter3053 05:14 pm EST 02/16/22 | |
| In reply to: re: finally - FinalPerformance 10:42 am EST 02/16/22 | |
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| I'm not sure that artworks, including drama, tell us a lot about their eras. They certainly tell us some things, but mainly from the point of view of the artist. Many others of an era not within the imaginative scope of the artist went on with sometimes quite divergent attitudes and action. A collection of artworks of an era, yes, that may begin to say a few more things. On the wider issue, concepts of human rights, justice, racial equality, gender equality, and the notions that love and peace should be driving values of a healthy society are reasonably new to humanity; they've been around for only about 2000 out of the 100,000 or so years of us being on the planet. Oscar Wilde, I think, said that nations are like individuals in slow motion. Individuals are born self-centred, totally needy, self-absorbed, egotistical - understandably, they're babies. As they mature, it is hoped that they acquire a developed sense of the needs of others; sympathy; then, by age and experience, empathy. In most cases, this is what happens - enough, at least, to make society possible. If this be true, America has done better than most in its development. It has seen the end of slavery (admittedly after England and Europe - although Europe got rid of slavery twice, once in the late ancient world, once in the 18th-19th centuries); indeed, it went to war so seriously it took the evil; it has seen the coming of civil rights, and women's rights, and gender rights; it has welcomed immigrants as much as possible; it has elected a colored President twice. In other words, as an individual, it has wrestled with its bad qualities and grown to be better. Its traditional musicals have reflected that: Harold Hill is healed through love, not hate. What I think has happened is that it has lost its belief in a better future, spiritually. Progress has always been spiritual progress. When Annie sings the sun'll come out tomorrow, its power to move is its power to believe; the metaphor is all. If one is hopeless, one won't want to sit through most of the classic musicals. Porgy and Bess? Carousel? South Pacific? My Fair Lady? Camelot? Les Miz? Phantom? Even Cats! We look back now, older, the parents to the new generation. I always felt that one doesn't develop a child by berating them for the mistakes that we hate; hatred breeds hatred. Look at Sweeney Todd. The challenge is always to recognise our own failings first, remind ourselves of the good, and work towards it together. What is the old saying? "Remove the log from your own eye so you can remove the speck from your brother's." America, like a complex individual, can choose to hate itself or remind itself of its moral accomplishments - which are considerable, and still possible if built upon love, forgiveness and hope. Wasn't it Oscar H. who, in Me and Juliet, said the mission of the theater was to send out the giant "a nicer giant than when he came in"? But only point the finger, and the giant will stomp away to do more damage. |
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