well... (Off-Topic)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Friday, December 09, 2022, 11:21 (714 days ago) @ Cody Miller

The book was pretty much straight reportage based on Kesey’s experiences. I know it well because I taught both the book and the film for years. You seem to be saying the movie did not change the world (because the world had already changed). At the same time, you echo several points from this article (almost verbatim), The film that changed psychiatry forever, which I think supports what I said well. Though I still love the film, I do think now it probably did more harm than good.

But do you not see how the commodification of art itself undermines its ability to influence? The fact that Art needs the media to even disseminate, should clue you in as to how the media will always use even 'dangerous' art for their own purposes. Either you never hear about it, or you hear about it through the lens of the media. And if art is a stepping stone for change, it's because either it's going that way on its own, or those in power have decided to co-opt it and go that way for their own benefit.

It's how Paul Ryan can love Rage against the Machine. It's how Gangsta rap was embraced by the establishment, pumped into the homes of suburban America where they can reshift the conversation from the depicted hardships, to the profanity and sexism. All the while teenage white girls listen without context. "I like the beats and rhymes" I'm sure you do. It scared white america, but the solution was to actually embrace and nullify it. If you don't what is being said, the best thing you can do is to give the artist a megaphone with your blessing. I assure you Compton and Watts are still bad places to live.

I see what you're saying but don't necessarily agree with it. Getting paid for art doesn't automatically corrupt it, and if people you wouldn't expect like something, that doesn't render it illegitimate. Maybe people are more complicated than the categories we create for them. Good art is definitely more complicated, as is the case with Cuckoo's Nest, whose influence could not be predicted. That's why I wince at phrases like "those in power" and the "they" who can reshift the conversation. William Goldman had it right when he said nobody knows anything. The political fringes are always talking about these conspiracies of control when it comes to the arts and culture, and for sure there's plenty of propagandistic dreck out there. There's good stuff, too, that doesn't map to easy narratives. That's the stuff most likely to change the world.