Monday, April 28, 2008

Taskmasters and Gurus

Here is a really thoughtful piece on the Shvarts debacle. Here is the problem, as far as the author is concerned:

"It is often said that great achievement requires in one's formative years two teachers: a stern taskmaster who teaches the rules and an inspirational guru who teaches one to break the rules. But they must come in that order. Childhood training in Bach can prepare one to play free jazz and ballet instruction can prepare one to be a modern dancer, but it does not work the other way around. One cannot be liberated from fetters one has never worn; all one can do is to make pastiches of the liberations of others."

But isn't anarchy, meaninglessness, and nihilism kinds of shackles? Disorder prohibits freedom just as much as oppressive laws. Art must have good sets of rules to maintain its freedom.

2 comments:

Todd Camplin said...

I just think its people being lazy.

Troy Camplin said...

Worse, it's justified laziness.