"The theorists are always ahead of the empiricists," he said, trying to keep a straight face.
But then he read this little article on "sweeping" new arguments on the evolution of art, and he realized that, in fact, the literary critics have been saying these things for, well, millennia. Aristotle said that imitation was innate; Nietzsche said that art was communal, festive (and any literary critic worth her weight in salt will tell you that the modern "great individual artist" myth is a recent invention); and didn't folks like Melanie Klein and Jacques Lacan have a lot to say about the role of the mother?
Maybe the last point is a bit of a stretch. But give us our brief moment in the sun: it's fun to see the sciences having to play catch-up for once.
Posted by pjaussen at November 27, 2007 9:22 AM