You thought wrong.

"Art should not be a mirror of reality but a hammer with which to shape a new reality." -Bertol Brecht

"Literature should be an ax to the frozen sea in us." - Kafka

K

I'll bet seeing snuff porn would make me feel sad. Is it art?

And of the escapist or realist variety?

K

I don't believe anyone said, "If it stirs feelings it is art," they said, "art stirs feelings." There is a difference.

But then, you knew that when you asked the question.

What is it?

K

Shoe, do you honestly imagine that at some point the people you're arguing with here are going to say, "Hey, you know what, you're right!"

I'm not taking sides, because (1) I like all of you just fine and (2) I no longer understand what any of you are arguing about. Something about art and happiness or art and pain. But nobody seems to be budging an inch in their positions.

Now, if you're just killing time and shooting the you-know-what, then forget I said anything.

Not even remotely.

And I suppose I should have foreseen that this would take a turn into the tired old "What is art?" discussion ... as if that discussion isn't the same every time, everywhere you go.

"A vegetable garden in the beginning looks so promising and then after all little by little it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing, nothing but vegetables."