A giggle for the new year

Isn't there an old line about "the tree falling in the forest?" I mean at least that is posed as a question. Nevertheless, AC Douglas suggests:

Let me make myself clear about this, if I haven't up to this point (and I think I have), by stating the matter in the bluntest of terms....the audience doesn't count. The actors don't count. The director doesn't count. Even the playwright himself doesn't count. Nothing counts but the created artwork: the play itself and its aesthetic realization; a realization determined -- determined exclusively -- by the requirements and dictates of the play's text alone in which is contained what's necessary for the achieving of the "aesthetic transcendence..." (italics added.)

What's left? I mean, how can the play exist without actors? Without an audience?

Next we'll learn that the same thing applies to buildings i.e. that the architect and the users don't count...that the only thing that counts is the isolated glittering precious-object, (even without doors or windows or watertight roof — for people don't count)...a structure aims to be a pure piece of "aesthetic transcendence" for its own pleasure. Aye, Robot.

Comments

[A.C. Douglas]

Spoken like a true SSB, David -- and one who clearly missed completely the full context of the remark.

ACD

[David Sucher]

Typical of you, Sucher, to simply read what is written and think that's what the writer meant to write.

[Chris]

David,
You've turned over the rock of the modernist (design) mentality - stand back - this one bites.
Of course it's really more scared of you, than...

But don't blame it. It's a product of the environment/culture; evolved in order to survive.

Maybe, profesionals in contemporary American society are so many steps removed from the "real" final product - (the building, the road, the movie screen) that they have no direct personal connection or vital feedback?
a possible breakdown in the process?...

So why should all that other 'stuff' matter?
Taking all that into consideration only makes the process overly complicated, overly time consuming, over budget...

For others, I think it might be just as simple as the 'lust of the idea'. Individualistic mental perfection or ego - "Look how (smart/clever/new) I am", versus the comfort/fit of a common, shared reality.