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Monday, November 30

What Art Can't Do

T. S. Elliot also reminds us of the value of the saying 'art for art's sake':

"The doctrine of 'art for art's sake', a mistaken one, and more advertised than practiced, contained this true impulse behind it, that it is a recognition of the error of the poet trying to do other people's work."
We tend to give art too much importance today. We still need preachers and philosophers and other teachers writing mainly in prose to help us understand and appreciate the world. What is surprising is that the abuse "art for art's sake" points at comes just as much from over-appreciating art as under-appreciating it.

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