The Muse
@themuse
The Muse
“My God, had women written histories
Like cloistered scholars in oratories
They’d have set down more of men’s wickedness
Than all the sons of Adam could redress.”
History and
Chaucer, Canterbury Tales
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
This document explores the effects of mechanical reproduction on art, discussing the change in perception, the relationship between mass and art, and the influence of technology and politics.
web.mit.eduit is comforting to know the rules of something so you can obey them and be in harmony with others, feeding the “follow the herd” instinct
top down processing: taking things your experience and dropping it into a category.
“call a thing with wings and feathers and a beak a bird”
Just a moment...
poetryfoundation.orgThe knife there on the shelf—
it reeked of meaning, like a crucifix.
It lived. How many years did I
beg it, implore it, not to break?
I knew each nick and scratch by heart,
the bluish blade, the broken tip,
the lines of wood-grain on the handle ...
Now it won’t look at me at all.
The living soul has dribbled away.
My eyes rest on it and pass on.
it reeked of meaning, like a crucifix.
It lived. How many years did I
beg it, implore it, not to break?
I knew each nick and scratch by heart,
the bluish blade, the broken tip,
the lines of wood-grain on the handle ...
Now it won’t look at me at all.
The living soul has dribbled away.
My eyes rest on it and pass on.