Steven Hadley argues that arts advocacy won’t work until we adopt a language that resonates with the majority of people.
“Wouldn’t you just die without Mahler?” This classic line from Willy Russell’s Educating Rita, spoken by the broken aesthete Trish, signifies both main character Rita’s entry into the realms of cultured bohemia and the hysterical emotiveness often associated with the late composer.
A confession. I used to think I suffered from some mild form of anhedonia, an alienation from responses like those experienced by Trish. An aesthetic deficiency which meant I wasn’t able to be taken cognitive hostage by the cultural works I had consumed after reading heady reviews. Novels that had left the reviewer breathless, over-awed and discombobulated, frequently after having been compelled to read the work in a single sitting. Works of art guaranteed to evoke powerful emotional responses often left me a bit, well, not that fussed. This issue was compounded by the fact that I had worked in the arts for nearly 20 years.
Trish’s exclamation has been echoing in my ears in the last few weeks after a series of equally daft pronouncements have hit the headlines. So much so, that I’ve realised that the problem was not anhedonia at all, but rather with the arts establishment itself... Keep reading on The Conversation
“Wouldn’t you just die without Mahler?” This classic line from Willy Russell’s Educating Rita, spoken by the broken aesthete Trish, signifies both main character Rita’s entry into the realms of cultured bohemia and the hysterical emotiveness often associated with the late composer.
A confession. I used to think I suffered from some mild form of anhedonia, an alienation from responses like those experienced by Trish. An aesthetic deficiency which meant I wasn’t able to be taken cognitive hostage by the cultural works I had consumed after reading heady reviews. Novels that had left the reviewer breathless, over-awed and discombobulated, frequently after having been compelled to read the work in a single sitting. Works of art guaranteed to evoke powerful emotional responses often left me a bit, well, not that fussed. This issue was compounded by the fact that I had worked in the arts for nearly 20 years.
Trish’s exclamation has been echoing in my ears in the last few weeks after a series of equally daft pronouncements have hit the headlines. So much so, that I’ve realised that the problem was not anhedonia at all, but rather with the arts establishment itself... Keep reading on The Conversation