Art Quote of the Day

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

On Downton Abbey and the Crisis of Culture

When in doubt, ask Hannah Arendt:
"The challenge posed by the mania around a show like Downton Abbey is that it is part and parcel of a cultural moment when art abandons its transcendent and protected realm and appeals to the needs of overly busy 'educated philistines' who want their entertainment also to be useful ... The point is that a consumer's society cannot possibly know how to take care of a world and the things which belong exclusively to the space of worldly appearances, because its central attitude toward all object, the attitude of consumption, spells ruin to everything it touches."