We write letters

[libertango]

jerrykaufman told me at the pub meet that The Stranger had published a letter from me. Doing a quick search here, it seems I never posted that one, so here it is:

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ART IS DEAD

TO THE EDITOR: While reading "Eye of the Storm" [Jen Graves, Nov 15], I was reminded of a presentation recently given by Erin McKean, senior editor for the Oxford University Press North American Dictionary Program. She had a slide up with a photo of James Murray, the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, who was in scholar's robes and an octagonal hat, circa 1880. Her point was how little dictionaries have changed since Murray's day: "When a guy who looks like that, in that hat, is the face of modernity... you have a problem."

In the same way, when Scott Lawrimore says his hero is Marcel Duchamp, all it does is illustrate how little art has changed in the last century or so. Art is no longer "modern"; it is no longer "contemporary." It is reactionary as hell, and it's trying desperately to keep itself locked in a time capsule that reads, "1917." It has become as fetishistic as a U.S. Civil War reenactor making certain his greatcoat contains nothing but wool.

Hal O'Brien