'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'
'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'
Denis Dutton, founder and editor of Arts and Letters Daily, had died. I looked at Art and Letters only every now and again. Nor did I read Dutton’s own recent book in aesthetics, The art instinct with its attack on social constructivism and its argument that art is based on human nature and natural selection.
Dutton influenced the daily reading habits of thousands of people. And I am sure that web-site editors all over the world will have looked out for the “Arts and Letters bump” in the graphs and, when working on a piece, will have thought “might this be one that Denis likes?” This is influence and power, and, as Khanna says, its prerequisite is authority.
Dutton’s authority came from his ability to consistently provide very high quality links to material that single readers would be unlikely to come across; an ability marked by Dutton persistent desire to marry the causal account of Darwinism with the meaning-based accounts of phenomenologists.
Curzon generalizes from Dutton's web achievements:
The web has done two fundamental things: reduced the cost of information reproduction to almost zero and has allowed us to link all that information together. In the context of editorial work, this has allowed a complete disaggregation of functions that used to be carried out within large institutions like newspapers and magazines. Dutton, a brilliant reader, could select articles, headline their essence (something he perfected well before the Tweet made us all try to do this) and link to them. The key editorial function of the filter no longer needed a commissioning budget, let alone a printing press and distribution network.
Arts and Letters Daily creates a lens for the cultured, conservative Anglo Saxon, entirely by selecting from other web sites 3 noteworthy articles per day.
| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 12:28 PM | Permalink
Yes he was an advocate of the "conservative" anglo-saxon world view.
His Art Instinct book was widely celebrated and reviewed by all of the usual right-wing and "libertarian" talking heads.
Even while their hard-edged troopers (with much help from Opus Dei) were remaking the world as described in The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, and as also described in this essay.
Yes he was an advocate of the "conservative" anglo-saxon world view.
His Art Instinct book was widely celebrated and reviewed by all of the usual right-wing and "libertarian" talking heads.
Even while their hard-edged troopers (with much help from Opus Dei) were remaking the world as described in The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, and as also described in this essay.
http://www.logosjournal.com/hammer_kellner