As
the cultural phenomenon of the Artist-Prophet dies, so too will the critic. Our
traditional
style of criticism was formulated by 19th century German
literary
feuilletonism. That is the period that gave us cultural nationalism
with
its host of artist-prophets and their critics. These forms of
nationalistic
elitism were inevitable developments as the bourgeoisie arose.
The
Internet is just one more medium that helps to dissolve nationalism and
elite
bourgeois status. As nationalism and class status become less
relevant,
the critic's function as a spokesman of the elite will die.
Even
in the "higher" arts, the corporatocracy of global capitalism will
require
a new kind of feuilletonist -- a sort of generalist gadfly who is
part
of a marketing apparatus focusing largely on celebrity. Eventually the
NYT
cultural section, for example, will look a lot like People Magazine.
Much
of The New Yorker is already a kind of People magazine for yuppies --
gossip
with a touch of niveau couched in the publication's self-consciously
affected
urbanity.
This
should not surprise anyone. Art will always be culturally isomorphic
with
the larger social structures of society. Mass marketing requires a
reductive
concept of the human. The aesthetic values of global capitalism by
necessity
esteem baseness.
The
key is for some theorist to define and codify the new feuilletonism's
style,
content, social and economic purpose. In the meantime, we should
remember: Blessed are the base, for they shall inherit the earth."