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POLITICAL_AESTHETES

                                              September 11, 2012

In various places, Scialabba
dismisses the attempts at
considering the esthetic as               He was writing during the fad
political, but (as I remember it),        for politically correctness
he  approves of attempts at               and post-modernism among
injecting esthetics into politics.        literary academics, something
                                          which could turn anyone off.
    How that asymmetry might
    be made to work is a                      It's possible, of course,
    question of some interest,                that there remains some
    to me, at least.                          *other* doctrine like
                                              this that might work.
    In general-- to my eye--
    there's an ambivalence
    about issues like this                              DIDACTICS
    running through
    Scialabba's work.


From Scilabba's article on
Edward Said, p. 208                           SCILABBA
of "What Are Intellectuals
Good For?" (breaks added):


   "Granted that there are evils in
   the world, notably imperialism.
   What's art got to do with it?       ORIENTALISM
   On Said's showing, not much."

                                       This makes a weak introduction to
                                       his following remarks, because
                                       Scialabba has to conceed that
                                       whatever Said's failings, he's
                                       been fairly politically active.



   "Which leaves literary critics in the same boat
   as the rest of us: ordinary citizens without
   politically relevant expertise.  For many people
   with aesthetic tastes and talents, real
   poltics-- anything likely to produce new
   legislation, not just new curriculum-- is bound
   to seem like fearful drudgery.  Since neither
   accepting irrelevance nor plunging into the
   pedestrian is an attractive option to most
   literary people, some have looked for reasons to
   consider the aesthetic as political.  ... So,
   since finding evidence (however far-fetched) of
   the 'formal and idelogical dependence" of art on
   social structure appears to provide work both
   congenial and useful, it is denominated
   'politcial.' "


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