Saturday, December 05, 2020

Of a piece with the times …

… Our Literary Drought | National Review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull)
Perhaps a great part of the absence of powerful literary talent in our day is explained by the loss of attention span sparked by the many forms of distraction now everywhere available — distraction that puts literary endeavor into the shade, if not shadow. One such distraction has been politics. Several American magazines that once were thought of as general-interest publications — among them The AtlanticHarper’s, most sadly The New Yorker — have given over more and more of their space to politics, to the detriment of their former cultural and literary interests. The Trump years have intensified this tendency. Reading these magazines in their current incarnations often feels like nothing so much as watching CNN or MSNBC, on the page instead of the screen, which is not all that edifying an experience.

It isn't just literature, though. It's all of the arts.  How many pople know who Anselm Kiefer is?

 

 

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