Walter Benjamin on Art (was Re: Jazz)

[kelley]

At 06:43 PM 1/19/01 -0500, you wrote:
>>kelley wrote:
>>>i however would like someone to make that case that music and the arts 
>>>do matter to left politics
>>As a prefiguration of utopia, maybe?
>>Doug
>
>Walter Benjamin wrote: "One of the foremost tasks of art has always been 
>the creation of a demand which could be fully satisfied only 
>later....Every fundamentally new, pioneering creation of demands will 
>carry beyond its goal" ("The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical 
>Reproduction," _Illuminations_, trans. Harry Zohn, NY: Schocken Books, 
>1968, p. 237).
>
>towards a socialist culture,
>
>Yoshie


:)  sounds like desire to me!!!

still, we have this discussion all the time at pulp.  i think you'll find 
plenty of artists who don't really care what the heck benjamin said and who 
disagree entirely if they do.  i'm just trying to get someone to 1. tell me 
what evokes in them the experience of utopia 2. how it can be conveyed if 
in fact such a feeling is ineffable and that's why art and music seems to 
convey it better than words.  yadda.

kelley