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ACT_VS_ART

                                           January 17, 2009
                                           February 9, 2009

Maybe this qualifies as one of
the hipster intercine wars: the
activist vs. artist.


   But then, as far as I can tell, it's
   fairly rare for an activist to *look
   down* on an artist for being a mere
   artist, but it is fairly common for
   the artist to have an inferiority
   complex about it.

   The artist often fears that
   they're just screwing around        Oh, those activists are
   with non-essentials, while the      so *hyper*, they're so
   activist is out there trying        *politically correct*,
   to save the world.                  they're so *full of
                                       themselves*....



         Then there's the case of the
         activist that regrets not
         being an artist...  I wonder
         how common this one is:

         Circa 1919:

         "The Reeds [ John Reed and Louise Bryant ]
         now lived in Patchin Place, the
         picturesque dead-end alley at                 Picturesque?  When I
         Tenth Street and Sixth Avenue.                looked at Patchin
                                                       place, it seemed like a
         "One night as Reed hastened home he met       short, gated-off
         Sherwood Anderson on the corner of Fifth      dead-end surrounded by
         Avenue and Ninth Street, directly under       brownstones.  But then,
         the windows where the Mabel Dodge Evenings    it no doubt seemed
         once were held.  For an hour the two men      different in 1919.
         talked of the poet's place in the world.
         Did he accomplish more, each asked the              I didn't see it
         other, by lying low and observing, by               until the
         joining, or (as in Reed's case) leading             1970s-- the era
         the fight for a better world?  Speaking as          when Charles
         a Poet, Reed appeared uncertain.  'If I             Platt lived
         could be dead sure I had something on the           there, and was
         ball as a poet,' he muttered.  Then, with           publishing the
         a characteristic leap of thought, he                "Patchin Review".
         shrugged and said, 'Well, somebody has to
         do the fighting.' "

                   Allen Churchill,
                   "The Improper Bohemians"
                   p. 227
                                              IMPROPER_BOHEMIANS





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