false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173452256m/290215.jpg 290215 4 Does strolling through an art museum, admiring the old masters, improve us morally and spiritually? Would government subsidies of "high art" (such as big-city opera houses) be better spent on local community art projects? In What Good are the Arts? John Carey--one of Britain's most respected literary critics--offers a delightfully skeptical look at the nature of art. In particular, he cuts through the cant surrounding the fine arts, debunking claims that the arts make us better people or that judgements about art are anything more than personal opinion. Indeed, Carey argues that there are no absolute values in the arts and that we cannot call other people's aesthetic choices "mistaken" or "incorrect," however much we dislike them. Along the way, Carey reveals the flaws in the aesthetic theories of everyone from Emanuel Kant to Arthur C. Danto, and he skewers the claims of "high-art advocates" such as Jeannette Winterson. But Carey does argue strongly for the value of art as an activity and for the superiority of one art in particular: literature. Literature, he contends, is the only art capable of reasoning, and the only art that can criticize. Language is the medium that we use to convey ideas, and the usual ingredients of other arts--objects, noises, light effects--cannot replicate this function. Literature has the ability to inspire the mind and the heart towards practical ends far better than any work of conceptual art. Here then is a lively and stimulating invitation to debate the value of art, a provocative book that will pique the interest of anyone who loves painting, music, or literature. 281566 2005 What Good Are the Arts? total:36|5:6|4:17|3:7|2:4|1:2| 36 129 87 11 3 0 false false Wed Jul 02 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 15 14:37:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 15 14:38:29 -0700 2009
"..My claim is different. It is that literature gives you ideas to think with. It stocks your mind. It does not indoctrinate, because diversity, counter-argument, reappraisal and qualification are its essence. But it supplies the m...more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Jan 07 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Sep 12 07:22:28 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 12 07:22:56 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 03 03:26:21 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 10 11:33:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Mar 26 09:45:22 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 26 09:47:50 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Wed May 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 02 10:20:29 -0700 2007 Wed May 07 08:31:50 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 17 22:57:49 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 01 16:01:32 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 28 19:27:17 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 28 19:30:53 -0700 2007 1 0 false false Wed Sep 03 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 07:49:27 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 07:51:22 -0700 2008
]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Mar 18 19:55:15 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 18 20:06:30 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Nov 11 06:31:52 -0800 2007 Sun Nov 11 06:34:15 -0800 2007 4 0 false false Wed Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu Jul 10 11:58:54 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 10 12:02:19 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Thu Nov 12 16:02:48 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 12 16:02:48 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Oct 26 00:57:07 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 26 00:57:07 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Oct 21 09:30:27 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 21 09:30:27 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Oct 07 07:20:55 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 07:20:55 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Oct 01 14:50:51 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 14:51:50 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Oct 01 06:57:31 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 06:57:31 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Sep 09 11:57:29 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 09 11:57:29 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Aug 24 10:24:26 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 10:24:26 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Aug 21 02:14:37 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 21 02:14:45 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=290215