The private control of credit is the modern form of slavery.
Upton SinclairRead
All art is propaganda. It is universally and inescabably propaganda; sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately, propaganda.
Interpretation
Art serves to convey messages and influence perceptions, whether intentionally or not.
This quote by Upton Sinclair suggests that all forms of art inherently function as a means of propaganda. It emphasizes that art, regardless of the creator's intentions, seeks to communicate ideas, values, or beliefs that can shape public opinion and societal norms.
In practice
Use this quote in a discussion about the role of art in society during a lecture on modern art.
The private control of credit is the modern form of slavery.
Human beings suffer agonies, and their sad fates become legends; poets write verses about them and playwrights compose dramas, and the remembrance of past grief becomes a source of present pleasure - such is the strange alchemy of the spirit.
I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.
And as for other men, who worked in tank-rooms full of steam, and in some of which there were open vats near the level of the floor, their peculiar trouble was that they fell into the vats; and when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting,-sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out into the world as Durham's Pure Leaf Lard! This contributed to the passing of the Pure Food Act of 1906.
Fascism is capitalism plus murder.
The old wanderlust had gotten into his blood, the joy of the unbound life, the joy of seeking, of hoping without limit.
Musicians are often asked to answer for an entire culture, or for an entire movement. It's a process of commodification. It becomes packaged and summarized in a word like 'emo' or 'grunge'... or 'folk music.' I think that's just language itself, trying to understand the mysteries of the world.
Architecture is a hazardous mixture of omnipotence and impotence. It is by definition a c h a o t i c a d v e n t u r e... In other words, the utopian enterprise.
There is a marvelous peace in not publishing. It's peaceful. Still. Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I live to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure. I don't necessarily intend to publish posthumously, but I do like to write for myself. I pay for this kind of attitude. I'm known as a strange, aloof kind of man. But all I'm doing is trying to protect myself and my work.
From the point of view of art, the butcher and the victim are equal as people. You need to see the people.
Detroit, my 'great' subject, made me the person I am, consequently the writer I am - for better or worse.
If Charlie Parker were a Gunslinger, There'd be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats
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