Walter Benjamin on Art (was Re: Jazz)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>let's
>try a crude empiricism. what empirically is the most common outcome
>of any art? i think it's  conversation. even at dances there are always
>as many people talking about the dancers as there are people dancing
>or just listening to the music. and the talk goes on when the music
>stops. yeats talks about the body swayed to music and we talk about
>his talk.
>
>someone on this list waxed conteptuous over my praise of phatic
>use of language and comparison to grooming ritual, but he was
>asshole utilitarian what could conceivably be more crucial to
>human survival & delight than constant reaffirmation of our
>recognizing each other as human, affirming our solidarity.
>
>when we read  reactionary but beautifl 'to penshurst' by
>jonson dead these 500 yrs we assure each other that 500
>yrs from now others will read us or look at our paintings --
>after all, guernica is as much ours as picassos. he really
>would not have made it without his confidence that we
>would look at it and chat phatically about it.
>
>if utopia enters in it is only in this confidence the artist has in us.
>
>perhaps related, perhaps not. cosider guthries obsession with
>names, with being there
>
>i was right there in boston the night that they died.
>
>carrol

I like the idea of "utopia in art = the confidence that the artist 
has in us."  That's nicely put.

Langston Hughes put the idea of recognition & affirmation of one 
another across time in this way.

*****   "To Make Words Sing"

To make words sing
Is a wonderful thing --
Because in a song
Words last so long.

Langston Hughes   *****

Yoshie