Right now I am reading Flannery O'Connor's Mystery and Manners and preparing to teach a few sections. The following passage stood out to me:
“Unless we are willing to accept our artists as they are, the answer to the question, "Who speaks for America today?" will have to be: the advertising agencies. They are entirely capable of showing us our unparalleled prosperity and our almost classless society, and no one has ever accused them of not being affirmative. Where the artist is still trusted, he will not be looked to for assurance. Those who believe that art proceeds from a healthy, and not from a diseased, faculty of the mind will take what he shows them as a revelation, not of what we ought to be but of what we are at a given time and under given circumstances; that is, as a limited revelation but revelation nevertheless.”
-Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
What is O'Connor saying here? Is it really a problem if advertising, not art, speaks for us? Why should we trust artists?
Let us compare the role of the advertiser with the role of the artist. They are almost completely at odds with each other.
On one hand, consider the following quote from Mad Men's Don Draper (advertising agent extraordinaire): "Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It's freedom from fear. It's a billboard on the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you are doing is okay. You are okay." (Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, 1.1)
On the other hand, we have the role of the writer and artist: to tell stories that, according to O'Connor, are often perceived as "hard, hopeless, and brutal". Using a few of O'Connor's themes as examples, the artist forces us to ask ourselves: What if I'm not any better than those whose lifestyles I hold in contempt? What if God loves the people I hate? What if everything I thought had value is worthless? What if I can't avoid death and suffering? What if I am ridiculous? What if I have ignored the beauty life has to offer?"
It is tempting for a complacent society to reject anything weird, bizarre, or unsettling from an artist. We naturally seek what is comforting and run away from danger. We run towards assurance and avoid self-evaluation. The artist, however, exists (in part) to unsettle. To declare that there are no easy answers, but that the difficult questions are worth thinking about. To show us our own ugliness and our own capacity for beauty. To portray us not "as we ought to be" or as we see ourselves, but to reveal "what we are".
We may not want to trust the artist because we instinctively distrust that which unsettles us. Why should we trust the man or woman who forces us to look into the most confusing aspects of humanity? Art does not exist to reassure; it exists to inform, to question, to reveal, to inspire, to elevate, and to change minds. This does not mean shocking for the sake of shocking - that is the ultimate act of ego. It does mean (possibly) shocking for the sake of making a legitimate point. That can potentially be an act of artistic integrity.
“Unless we are willing to accept our artists as they are, the answer to the question, "Who speaks for America today?" will have to be: the advertising agencies. They are entirely capable of showing us our unparalleled prosperity and our almost classless society, and no one has ever accused them of not being affirmative. Where the artist is still trusted, he will not be looked to for assurance. Those who believe that art proceeds from a healthy, and not from a diseased, faculty of the mind will take what he shows them as a revelation, not of what we ought to be but of what we are at a given time and under given circumstances; that is, as a limited revelation but revelation nevertheless.”
-Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
What is O'Connor saying here? Is it really a problem if advertising, not art, speaks for us? Why should we trust artists?
Let us compare the role of the advertiser with the role of the artist. They are almost completely at odds with each other.
On one hand, consider the following quote from Mad Men's Don Draper (advertising agent extraordinaire): "Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It's freedom from fear. It's a billboard on the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you are doing is okay. You are okay." (Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, 1.1)
On the other hand, we have the role of the writer and artist: to tell stories that, according to O'Connor, are often perceived as "hard, hopeless, and brutal". Using a few of O'Connor's themes as examples, the artist forces us to ask ourselves: What if I'm not any better than those whose lifestyles I hold in contempt? What if God loves the people I hate? What if everything I thought had value is worthless? What if I can't avoid death and suffering? What if I am ridiculous? What if I have ignored the beauty life has to offer?"
It is tempting for a complacent society to reject anything weird, bizarre, or unsettling from an artist. We naturally seek what is comforting and run away from danger. We run towards assurance and avoid self-evaluation. The artist, however, exists (in part) to unsettle. To declare that there are no easy answers, but that the difficult questions are worth thinking about. To show us our own ugliness and our own capacity for beauty. To portray us not "as we ought to be" or as we see ourselves, but to reveal "what we are".
We may not want to trust the artist because we instinctively distrust that which unsettles us. Why should we trust the man or woman who forces us to look into the most confusing aspects of humanity? Art does not exist to reassure; it exists to inform, to question, to reveal, to inspire, to elevate, and to change minds. This does not mean shocking for the sake of shocking - that is the ultimate act of ego. It does mean (possibly) shocking for the sake of making a legitimate point. That can potentially be an act of artistic integrity.
The advertiser tells us: You are okay. You can afford this. Everything is alright.
The artist tells us, to quote Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, "Nothing costs enough here."
The advertiser tells us: Fear is easy to avoid.
The artist pulls back the curtain from the things we fear; foremost among them, ourselves.
(Of course, putting things in perspective, marketing is useful and can be great fun :-))
I love Flannery O'Connor. And I didn't know you were into Mad Men, Lili...
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