Dumbing down takes many forms: art that is good for you, museums that flatter you, universities that increase your self-esteem. Culture, after all, is really about you.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the simplification of culture to cater to individual preferences and self-esteem.
Denis Dutton's quote emphasizes how the degradation of culture manifests in various ways, including art and educational institutions that prioritize a false sense of approval or comfort over genuine intellectual or aesthetic engagement. He suggests that this trend not only compromises the integrity of cultural expression but also reflects a troubling self-centeredness in how we perceive and value art and education.
In practice
This quote can be used in art discussions to highlight the need for authentic artistic experiences rather than comforting mediocrity.
While all the other kids were out playing ball and stuff, I used to stay in my room and imagine that there was a camera in the wall. And I used to really believe that I was putting on a television show and that it was going out to somewhere in the world.
I just think music is so intrinsically linked with images in the culture that we live in that you'll be hard-pressed to have an experience with the music without a preconceived notion.
It is to be remembered that all art is magical in origin - music, sculpture, writing, painting - and by magical I mean intended to produce very definite results. Paintings were originally formulae to make what is painted happen. Art is not an end in itself, any more than Einstein's matter-into-energy formulae is an end in itself. Like all formulae, art was originally FUNCTIONAL, intended to make things happen, the way an atom bomb happens from Einstein's formulae.
I have a real interest in pushing some of the limits of things that studios don't want to make.
When she listened to songs that she loved on the radio, something stirred inside her. A liquid ache spread under her skin, and she walked out of the world like a witch.
What critics call dirty in our pictures, they call lusty in foreign films.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.