INTRODUCTION
50S
or Karen Wilkin in
Partisan Review.
But how do those of us in the
humanities and the social sciences evaluate the discoveries of Gerald
Weissmann and his peers or the varying consequences of "virtual real–
ity"? Ray Kurzweil will tell us aboLlt technological advances on the hori–
zon, for which lawyers like Richard Grimm will have to create
legislation. How do people manage to discriminate when bombarded
with so much information, with so much hype-from judging the possi–
ble consequences of scientific findings down to the movies and plays that
compete for Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, and all the other prizes?
Can we even know whether talented writers stay away from complex
language and plots in order to sell their books? Whether some of the
artsy-craftsy stuff in many museums was produced to shock and attract
viewers-which, in turn, generates funding and media coverage? Jules
Olitski will address this issue. On political questions, are we able to dif–
ferentiate between fact and liberal bias when we read the
Boston Globe
and the
New York Times,
or its more flashy antithesis, the
New York
Post?
Are non-specialists aware that audience participation surveys in
museums were created in response to funding criteria set up by the
National Endowments-based on the number of visitors? And that, in
turn, exhibitions are being put together in order to attract larger and
larger audiences? Or that most theater and film directors play up what
will exert a pull on ticket buyers, which means, also, that they are care–
ful not to stretch the imagination of the "average" person-whoever
that may be?
Macdonald speculated about what would happen were we to try
reviving the spirit of the old avant-garde. He concluded that the blur–
ring of class lines, the lack of a continuous tradition, along with our
enormous facilities to produce and distribute kitsch "all work in the
other direction." The sordid state of our system of public education
since then, I should add, helps accelerate this process. I kept Dwight's
admonitions in mind when organizing this conference. Thus I invited
panelists who are intellectuals rather than reporters, highbrows (I know
this is a dangerous word to use) rather than popular figures, and scien–
tists at the pinnacles of their fields. The session topics are more or less
arbitrary breakdowns of the things that make our current culture go
around. I scheduled a session on European/American relations, because
our traditions are European, and given the increasing globalization–
not only of economic but also of intellectual life-I thought we ought to
hear from European-based thinkers as well as from our own.
1 have recalled just a few highlights of
Partisan Review's
history. It is
important to remember, also, that the choices of topics stressed or
