Against Pedantry — Criticism must not be haughty or overly digressive. The feigned sobriety of scholarly disinterest robs artwork of its vital power. Interpretation should participate in the emotion of the piece,
playing off
its frenzied passions,
its fits of laughter,
its (whispered) seductions.
It must not fear to follow form into madness, meter into
boredom, color into ecstasy.
Formality needs not be abandoned altogether, however: there is a certain wisdom in its restraint, a polite virtue in its conventions. How sad they are who cannot notice the elegance of its regularity. How ungrateful we are to scoff at its quiet dignity.
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But let us not be pushed to a false distance by our rational conceit.
Who can still live the tired fiction of indifference?
Art is rendered lifeless so that it might be dissected without the pang of conscience.
But how can we forget the original murder?
Our hands are not wiped clean by any act of cleverness.
