Thursday 11 June 2009

In Praise of Mediocrity

Yesterday I read this letter on one of the Dear Ceefax pages.

"NM of County Durham (9/6) asks why today there are no great artists such as Constable, Tchaikovsky, Wordsworth etc.

"Simple. In their day talent was rewarded above mediocrity, whereas today the exact opposite is true. Why would anyone dedicate a lifetime to perfecting a skill if they can get £1m for not making their bed?"

Priceless. I suppose "£1m for not making their bed" must be a reference to Big Brother or some other reality TV programme.

I don't know if it's true that talent was rewarded more in the past than it is now, but certainly the American idea that anybody can become anything – a US President, a film star, a pop singer, a celebrity, a billionaire, a footballer, an artist, a bestselling writer – has infected our way of thinking – and I'm afraid there's no going back.

AG

5 comments:

  1. It seems we also live in an age in which eminent publishers don't know the difference between Tracy Emin and Big Brother.

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  2. The 'unmade bed' was an art installation by Tracy Emin

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  3. I see – oh well, I am not an eminent publisher, and ignorance is not a crime as far as I know – I think there are much bigger crimes than not knowing the difference between Tracy Emin and Big Brother.

    AG

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  4. It's a shame one can't point out to this cretinous Ceefax correspondent that Constable and Wordsworth were not considered genuine artists in the early part of their careers either. Not that Emin is a great artist, but if art were a matter of maintaining tradition we'd still be painting bison on cave walls.

    And Tchaikovsky is Romantic kitsch.

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  5. But the correspondent's point seems to be that, whatever posterity's judgement on these artists, they refined their art and their skills – some of them going through imitative or formulaic periods – over the course of a lifetime.

    My own point was that in fiction today we are more than happy to accept someone like Katie Price writing a novel (if it's her who writes her novels) or a nine-year-old from India "writing" a memoir. Writing should also be regarded as an art – something you cannot improvise but get to through toil and exercise.

    Tchaikovsky Romantic kitsch? Mmm.

    AG

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