Sisters, Saints and Sibyls

Art has mostly no power except for the following: it can remind us that at least in theory we have the option to become better people than who we are. By “better people” I don’t mean more productive or more popular or more powerful. Instead, “better” orients itself by the ideals we hold dear deep down inside us (regardless of to what extent we might have repressed our awareness of them). Typically, better involves more: more forgiving, more loving, more accepting (these latter two aren’t the same even though there certainly is some overlap), more willing to see past someone else’s faults, more of a capacity to see the other person exactly for who they are. The more an artist is willing and able to pursue that route, the stronger their work becomes — and the stronger resistance either against the work or the person (or both) becomes. In this golden age of utility in which a person is measured solely by what they can do to help the rich become even more rich, nobody poses more of a…