Carolina QuotesUntil the world perceives that “good” cannot be applied to a thing because it is our own, and “bad” because it is another’s, there is no prospect of realizing community.
Richard M. Weaver Carolinian
Source
“The Power of the Word,” p. 54.
- work
- Language is Sermonic (1970)
- year
- 1970
- locator
- p. 54
Cite this record
“Until the world perceives that “good” cannot be applied to a…” Richard M. Weaver. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-F2A5D894D2. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/f2a5d894d2
More from Richard M. Weaver
The member of a culture … purposely avoids the relationship of intimacy; he wants the object somehow depicted and fictionalized. … He is embarrassed when this is taken out of its context of proper sentiments and presented bare, for he feels that this is a reintrusion of that world which his whole conscious effort has sought to banish. Forms and conventions are the ladder of ascent. And hence the speechlessness of the man of culture when he beholds the barbarian tearing aside some veil which is half adornment, half concealment.
In his effort toward revivification of this sense [the sense for great art], the modern artist has not infrequently retired into himself; he has accepted isolation or even alienation. … Sometimes the good has to go underground. … The “revolutionary” artist … has had the aim of saving himself from the surrounding forces of sentimentality and vulgarity. … It is impossible to make a deal with these forces, and we should not be surprised if in striking back the artist has done so in ways even intended to be offensive. He has sometimes shown defiance and contempt toward those who would deny his level of seriousness.
Neuter discourse is a false idol.