It has become apparent that art can have a startling impact without really being or saying anything startling - or new. The character itself of being startling, spectacular, or upsetting has become conventionalized, part of safe good taste.

One is also reminded of how in art the tortoise so often overtakes the hare. Not all, but too many of the best writers, composers, and artists of our time begi…

'Purity' of and in art - any art, including music and dance - is an illusory notion, of course. It may be remotely conceivable or imaginable, but it can't be r…

It belongs to journalism - and to the millennial complex from which so many journalists and journalist intellectuals suffer in our day - that each new phase of…