Saturday Shorts 2

Museums and Art Galleries

There is an instinct for rank, which more than anything else is already the sign of a high rank; there is a delight in the nuances of reverence which leads one to infer noble origin and habits. The refinement, goodness, and loftiness of a soul are put to a perilous test when something passes by that is of the highest rank, but is not yet protected by the awe of authority from obtrusive touches and incivilities: something that goes its way like a living touchstone, undistinguished, undiscovered, and tentative, perhaps voluntarily veiled and disguised. He whose task and practice it is to investigate souls, will avail himself of many varieties of this very art to determine the ultimate value of a soul, the unalterable, innate order of rank to which it belongs: he will test it by its instinct for reverence. Difference engendre haine: the vulgarity of many a nature spurts up suddenly like dirty water, when any holy vessel, any jewel from closed shrines, any book bearing the marks of great destiny, is brought before it; while on the other hand, there is an involuntary silence, a hesitation of the eye, a cessation of all gestures, by which it is indicated that a soul feels the nearness of what is worthiest of respect. The way in which, on the whole, the reverence for the Bible has hitherto been maintained in Europe, is perhaps the best example of discipline and refinement of manners which Europe owes to Christianity: books of such profoundness and supreme significance require for their protection an external tyranny of authority, in order to acquire the period of thousands of years which is necessary to exhaust and unriddle them. Much has been achieved when the sentiment has been at last instilled into the masses (the shallow-pates and the boobies of every kind) that they are not allowed to touch everything, that there are holy experiences before which they must take off their shoes and keep away the unclean hand—it is almost their highest advance towards humanity. On the contrary, in the so-called cultured classes, the believers in "modern ideas,"nothing is perhaps so repulsive as their lack of shame, the easy insolence of eye and hand with which they touch, taste, and finger everything; and it is possible that even yet there is more relative nobility of taste, and more tact for reverence among the people, among the lower classes of the people, especially among peasants, than among the newspaper-reading demimonde of intellect, the cultured class.

-Friedrich Nietzsche, “Beyond Good and Evil” P. 209-211

I despise museums. This is unfortunate as I enjoy history, so I find myself in them fairly often. The same applies to art galleries, (although in my opinion American ones are lacking).

Museums

I despise the two for different reasons. Museums I hate because they have become sites designed almost purely for entertainment, something that you take your children to because you’re supposed to. As such, like everything designed for children, they have become innately childish. I can recall visiting one as a child and being annoyed with how many “interactive” displays there were which had replaced information, the same applies to zoos. Even as little more than a toddler I didn’t need to be constantly entertained by interactive little trinkets, and if a child does then perhaps you don’t need to bring them to a museum in the first place. These sorts of displays are designed for the type of child who is hauled around on a leash by a woman as wide as she is tall, exhausted because she forgot to pick up today’s methamphetamine adderall prescription. Yet the child must be brought to the museum, presumably to learn.

Most children don’t actually need to have educational material “brought down to their level”. The parent can explain things to the child from the information which they either know or are learning themselves, or perhaps the child can even read it on their own, (age dependent). This actually makes the museum an experience which is beneficial to the parental relationship rather than one of listening to all of the other children running around and screaming while wondering to one’s self how the glass hasn’t broken yet.

Museums are also not traditionally designed for children. This is not to say that children were ever discouraged from attending, but rather that it was not expected that children needed to be catered to, certainly not to the extent that the experience for adults was diminished. For extremely young children, there is a category specifically named “Children’s museums”, which is intended to cater specifically to them.

But it isn’t simply that museums are designed for children, but that they are designed for disinterested adults. Many are now centered around the food court and filled with flashy advertising to ensure that the people who have already driven to the site are encouraged to finish touring it.

ADA compliance. This is really a topic for its own essay, but ADA compliance disgusts me. Firstly, the vast majority of the disabled in the United States are not disabled: they are fat. The fact that half of a building has to be converted into ramps or elevators to accomodate fat people is despicable. This is much worse in terms of outdoor archaeological sites and such, with the most egregious examples involving tearing down part of the site to make way for wheelchair accesibility. In recovering from some old wounds there have been times in my life where I have had to use a cane, unfortunately being disabled is a limiting factor. Rather than limiting everyone else, perhaps we should accept that fact.

Lastly, the actual point of the musuem section of this piece is that the majority of the people in a museum have no reverence for history. They have been trained out of it. History is bad, and as such it is to be scoffed at, (unless of course it is African tribal art, in which case how dare you). Every loud conversation in a museum seems to consist of “you see how bad they had it back then” or “I’m glad we aren’t like that”. This isn’t me trying to be a prude. I’ll crack jokes to whoever I brought along with me about little things as well, but not from such a fundamentally disrespectful perspective. Perhaps this is just getting back onto politics though.

Art Galleries

Art galleries suffer from the opposite problem. In these, the ‘common people’ are typically very respectful, with the exclusion of photo-takers, (who I am actively in favor of imprisoning). No, here it is the ‘upper classes’ who give me grief.

The example which will best summarize what I am getting at: In the Galleria Dell ‘Accademia Di Forenze, I was waiting behind an older couple, (60’s), to see a painting. The facility is very crowded even with the, (excellent), system of timed entry. While I was waiting, I heard the woman ask her husband, “So what do you think this one means?”. “I don’t know dear, but I assume you’re about to tell me..”, he replied. “Well obviously that bit represents Jesus…”, and she droned on, berating him for foolishly not understanding the painting. The smug attitude that these people hold on display: that they are the only ones in the world who understand art despite all deeper meaning being fundamentally unnaccessible to them. The common man, who may not understand the specific symbology attatched to each piece of a given painting, understands that he is looking at art and that it is to be revered, whilst these “nobles” only have value for it insofar as it can be used to demonstrate their greatness.

This is the entirety of the “modern art” phenomenon in my opinion. The fundamental lack of beauty is its very purpose: “how could the common man ever understand this”, they say to themselves smugly, sipping champagne while taking in the spectacle of a banana taped to a wall. (Of course there is the aspect of money laundering, but it’s not of much relevance for this piece.)

Our “nobles” have lost all aristocratic taste. In many ways this is the problem of our age: lack of taste. This will only ever be solved when our “nobles” are noble again, but I’m not sure even “the Right” is ready to address that issue…

This isn’t the best picture of the statue out there, but it’s the first view that I had of it, so I thought it fitting.