The artist must practice art for
art’s sake – his is not the job to be the moral custodian of the society he
inhabits. Especially, not in this day and age when most artists are truly
independent, beholden to no special interests or manipulative patrons, except
their own passions and their ideologies.
The Classical Greek philosopher
Plato held that poetry (and drama and literature) had little to do with moral
didacticism. Instead, by allowing the poet’s mind and pen to roam freely, the
reader/audience was confounded with beauteous descriptions of sin, follies, and
foibles, that they were now forced to view these moral problems as interesting.
And yet, by being forced to confound vice in this manner, through art, the
reader/audience learnt about virtue!
This is evidenced by the many great
Elizabethan literary geniuses, who had little concern for representing morals
“correctly” in any of their works. We hardly know what religion Shakespeare had
– he never bothered to let us know, because in his worldview, it did not
matter! His views on the sins and vices of the men and women who inhabited his
work were completely removed and impersonal. Through his work, he allowed us to
even feel for his villains, and understand their motivations and rationale, no
matter how dastardly their handiwork. That, indeed, is the true mark of artist.
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