Episode 33: The Fine Art of Changing the Subject: On Duchamp's 'Fountain'
Weird Studies
00:00
Is Modernism a Good Idea?
The problem with this type of critique is that it always comes across as kind of this crotchety old curmudgeon railing against all the kids these days, you know, my day. One reason why I like to assign this essay is because he actually there if you read it carefully, you realize that he is trying to articulate an idea of what it is that modernism does badly. He's imagining for us very beautifully the kind of life of quiet desperation of a guy who finds himself adrift from everything as Larkin says that once made life sweet. And enjoyment and endurance is what he's talking about in that wonderful passage imagining the London stockbroker and his 30 year old house
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