Monday, June 28, 2010

Use your words...

Joyce Carol Oates is exactly right at the end of her essay in saying that "there can be no criticism for all time, not even for much time." If the artist wants to introduce death, illness and victim-hood as an element in their work, they should be prepared to be critiqued on how they use it. Using emotion can be described as "heavy-handed", "manipulative", "gross", "poignant", "subtle", "moving", etc; all the same adjectives we use for color, form, subject and every other element in the work. Croce herself does this when she goes on to discuss David and Ain Gordon's play The Family Business. Why couldn't she go to the Still/Here show and give it a bad review? Isn't that what movie critics do all the time?
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3 comments:

  1. HeiseyJune 28, 2010 at 3:41 PM

    The problem with giving Still/Here a review opens the possibility of giving a bad review. It's like telling someone that those jeans do make you look fat or criticizing someone's father who just passed away. The dance could have been great but no one is paying attention to the quality of the dance. Instead they focus on the fact that they have HIV and are still alive. I believe Croce is saying that she doesn't want to review the show because she will not be able to give a true criticism of the performance. Her review will be tainted by the eventual doom of the performers.

    Which leads to the the question why did she write about not wanting to review the show? Isn't she giving voice to the show that she doesn't want acknowledge?

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  2. Michele KishitaJune 28, 2010 at 4:14 PM

    Perhaps, but we are all "doomed." Each one of us will die. What's the difference between performers who actually have, let's say AIDS for example,and performers who are playing the role of people with AIDS? Would "Still/Here" be different or available for criticism if all of the performers were "healthy" and playing the roles of the sick?

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  3. UnknownJune 28, 2010 at 7:10 PM

    This is good - another thing we'll need to talk about is authenticity and its effect on art. A good deal has changed since this was written as far as the subject goes (it matters more now than it did then) but I submit that a good deal of Croce's discomfort stems from the degree of authenticity (here, almost a flip side of disinterest...)

    Keep 'em coming folks...

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