The main trouble with avant-garde art and literature, from the point of view of fascists and Stalinists, is not that they are too critical, but that they are too 'innocent,' that it is too difficult to inject effective propaganda, that kitsch is more pliable to this end.

'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…

Perhaps the greatest change that industrialism (along with Protestantism and rationalism) has made in daily life is to separate work from leisure in a radical …

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…