Don’t Forget Maugham
How do we recognize artistic merit today? What relation does it have with popularity? How important is fame in measuring the artist? Why is merit often unmatched by success, whereas the latter and mediocrity are almost one and the same? All one has to do is look at Hollywood and its products of nonstop horror films, but I’m not going there, the place is a burned-out case, pun intended.
The vexing question implicit in my quest is how do we recognize artistic merit? Everyone knew that Mozart was a miracle and that Beethoven, Bach, Schubert, and countless others were geniuses. Their merit stuck out; just think of poor old very talented Salieri. Among poets Keats is the greatest, but you couldn’t get Byron to agree. He badmouthed the dirt-poor and dying Keats because deep down inside he must have known his Byronic verses to be inferior. (Not many will agree with me, but unlike the Brits who adore the mad, bad and dangerous-to-know philhellene, I’m a romantic, and Keats is
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
