Clive Davis

THE HIGH CHURCH OF ART

In the aftermath of the Berlin opera fiasco, Popcorn vendor Martha Bayles analyzes the modern cult of transgression:

Its creed is really quite simple: If law and custom allow 25 yards of freedom in which to make art, and the artist feels that 50 yards is needed to create the work, then he or she must take 100 yards, thereby "pushing the envelope" of what law and custom will tolerate.

In previous centuries and most other civilizations, 50 yards has been enough, and artists have sought the middle ground between the constraints of society and the demands of the muse. But that is not good enough for today's high priests of art, such as Deutsche Oper director Hans Neuenfels...In the high church of art, Mozart is a semi failure who secretly yearned to play football with the severed heads of prophets, but due to the repressive attitudes of various princes and archbishops, was forced to write gorgeous, immortal music instead.

THOSE BASTARDS WHO RUN HALLIBURTON - A BALLET IN FOUR ACTS

Former New Yorker critic Arlene Croce - no friend of "victim art" - spills the beans on the dance Mafia:

Choreographers mix dance with politics because it is the only way to get attention. And get grants too, probably. The importance of a work is equated with the nobility of the sentiment it expresses. I've stopped attending dance attractions because the last thing I want to see is dancers wasting their time on some high-minded godawful piece of choreography. I don't want to be told about Iraq or Bush or Katrina by someone younger and dumber than I am.

Back to the subject of Mozart, opera and sacrilege, a neat response from Ann Althouse [Via Instapundit]:

Now that some Muslims have made it painfully obvious that religion-taunting is not an easy game anymore, abandoning it expresses fear, not respect for religion. And continuing to disrespect the religions that don't lash back only highlights that cowardice. Poor transgressive rebel artists! How are they to shock the middle class anymore?

EVIL FOX NEWS

Peggy Noonan on the big bad wolf:

One can't exaggerate how large Fox looms in the liberal imagination. They see it as huge and mighty and credit it with almost mythical powers...It is odd that they are so spooked. In October America is set to become a nation of 300 million. What a big country. Fox News's average evening prime-time viewership is less than two million. Its average daytime is less than a million. And if my mail is an indication, they're already Republicans.

Worth reading the rest of the column, about what was lost when the the old media consensus was shattered by new technology. It hasn't all been for the better:

I spoke with a network producer a few weeks ago, an old warhorse who was trying to explain his frustration at the current ratings race. He wrestled around the subject, and I cut with rude words to what I thought he was saying. "You mean it's gone from the dictatorship of a liberal elite to the dictatorship of the retarded."

Yes, he said. And it's not progress.

When liberals miss something in the media, that's what they should be missing. Not a unity that never existed but standards that were high. When conservatives say there's nothing to miss, they're wrong.

A FARCE AT THE OPERA

Is that controversial Mozart production back on again? Reuters thinks it's possible.

A Times reader chips in:

The opera is set during the Trojan War, long before the birth of Muhammad. The gods in question are those of Ancient Greece. It is another example of the cock-eyed thinking so common in operatic productions these days. The offence is not to "the gods" but to Mozart.

Michael Moore biographer, Jesse Larner forwards a mischievous letter that he's sent to the Guardian. I had no idea he was such a pagan:

Where is the outrage about the indignity that the opera proposed to inflict upon our Great Lord Poseidon? We humble followers of the illustrious Olympian also have feelings that transcend mere democratic niceties, and we propose to claim our rights.

From Odysseus to the residents of New Orleans, many have learned to their regret that the Sea God will not be mocked -- but if he fails to act, we are here to defend his honour. Non-Poseidonists have nothing to fear so long as they are respectful of our beliefs, and indeed should be grateful for our resolve and courage. Society will be far better off when we all accept the principle that religious conviction trumps every other aspect of civic life

But a dissenting note from the Atlantic Review's Joerg Wolf, who just e-mailed me this:

What a great and shrewed publicity stunt the opera house made by first announcing the cancellation. Usually hardly anybody would be interested in that opera, but now it is the talk of the town...

I think I am in a very small minority who approved of the cancellation... It seems the only reason to defend this stupid opera is to avoid giving the impression of appeasement to the Islamofascists. That's not enough for me... To win the war on terrorism, we need to have moderate Muslims on our side... This opera, however, alienates the moderate Muslims and helps the fundamentalists.

Joerg also reminds us of the fuss made over My Name Is Rachel Corrie - a dull, right-on pamphlet of a play, I thought - after plans were announced for a New York transfer.

HUEY & CO - 1

If scribbling a weblog can be a tiring chore, how much more perspiration is used up on a daily strip cartoon? Seems The Boondocks, one of the sharper, if more PC creations of recent times has reached the final frame after six years - a long, long time in politics, but the mere flick of an eyelash in the life-cycle of a strip. (I've never been a regular reader of the vintage Gasoline Alley, but I'm fascinated by the way it works its way through one generation after another. Learned about that from the wonderful Penguin Book of Comics, given to me as a present aeons ago.)

HUEY & CO - 2

Huey, one of the main characters, takes his name from Black Panther leader, Huey Newton. It's amazing that the Panthers have any reputation left after the damage inflicted by that gripping book, The Shadow of the Panther, published a decade or so ago. A sordid but fascinating read. (David Horowitz's Radical Son dug up lots of dirt too.) Yet, somehow, the mythology lingers on. Stanley Crouch, a man who takes no prisoners, returns to the fray in a review of a memoir by former insider, Flores Forbes:

Newton had a cocaine habit that made his personality mercurial and may have provided the impetus to shift his organization into serious crime by the early 1970's. Fawned over by the New Left, the news media and Hollywood, he was transformed into a messiah expected to fill ever bigger shoes.

... In a very low-key, matter-of-fact style that takes attempted murder, gunplay, beatings, extortion and arrests as normal occurrences, Forbes pulls the covers off Newton with so much authority that the case his book makes against the Black Panther legend will be hard to dismiss. In unparalleled detail , we are given the inside story of a left-wing group of "revolutionaries" whose organization evolved into a lucrative criminal enterprise

There's a bizarre moment in the DVD of one of Richard Pryor's live shows where he points to Newton in the audience and asks him to take bow. Chilling.

So, when I hear Islamists ranting on the streets or on the Today programme, I can't help thinking of the easy ride Newton and his henchmen used to be given by much of the media. Maybe history is repeating itself. The first time as farce, the second time as tragedy?

NON-APOLOGY 1

In TCS, Lee Harris poses a question for Madeleine Bunting and all those who have condemned the Pope for displaying "stupidity" in his Regensburg address:

Suppose that the eminent English biologist Richard Dawkins delivered a speech at Regensburg in which he attacked supporters of Creationism and Intelligent Design theory as "ignorant boobs" - words that he has already applied in them in a written article. Now, let us imagine that Christian fundamentalists all over the United States, outraged by this inflammatory language, went on a violent rampage. Suppose that they lynched an elderly professor of biology, and attacked biology departments at several universities. Suppose that teachers of high school biology went about in fear of their lives, while many simply quit their jobs.

What kind of article would Madeleine Bunting write about such a hypothetical incident? Do you think she would violently condemn Richard Dawkins, writing something along the lines of:

"Even the most cursory knowledge of dialogue with Creationists teaches...that reverence for the Biblical account of man's creation is non-negotiable. What unites all Christian fundamentalists is a passionate devotion and commitment to the inerrancy of the Holy Bible."

[Via Rod Dreher]

NON-APOLOGY 2

Former Spanish prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar wants to know why Muslim states haven’t apologized for the Moorish conquest of Spain. Tom Gross has details in his latest news round-up, and there's more here.

THE MOZART FIASCO

The New Culture Forum highlights Roger Boyes' report on the shelved Deutsche Oper production of Idomeneo. Consternation all round over claims that Muslim sensibilities might have been offended. Boyes finds, however, that other German producers are in a more uncompromising mood:

The respected English Theatre in Frankfurt is staging the European English-language premiere of "The Last Virgin", by Tuvia Tenenbom, the provocative Israeli-American playwright, which makes fun of suicide bombers. Talks have been held with the police and sniffer dogs patrol the aisles before every performance. No bags are allowed into the auditorium. There has been no trouble, though the play — which mocks Arabs and Jews in equal measure — has drawn fierce criticism from German Jews.

"We should never capitulate," Tenenbom told The Times yesterday. "What kind of message is this sending to the Arabs on the street? Frankly, it is a racist decision because it is tantamount to saying that all Arabs cannot wait to blow themselves up in Europe."

One of the best comments on the Berlin affair comes from blogger Scribal Terror:

Too bad they didn't just cancel it because it was stupid.

UPDATE: The Playgoer picks up an, er, encouraging press quote:

The leader of Germany's Islamic Council welcomed the decision, saying a depiction of Muhammad with a severed head ''could certainly offend Muslims.''

''Nevertheless, of course I think it is horrible that one has to be afraid,'' Ali Kizilkaya told Berlin's Radio Multikulti. ''That is not the right way to open dialogue."

A GLIMMER - 2

Rod Dreher has been corresponding with counter-terrorism consultant Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, author of a soon-to-be-published book about his experience as a Muslim convert. Gartenstein-Ross fell under the spell of Wahhabism before he eventually left Islam. Here's what he has to say about the process of indoctrination:

When I practiced Islam and went through my own process of radicalization, I found the case made by radicals... to be more logical and sound. The logical force of the radicals' interpretation of the Islamic faith cannot be denied; anybody who brushes off [their] interpretation of jihad as clearly and simply distorting Islam is either dissembling or else speaking from sincere ignorance.

I don't think, though, that the radicals are inevitably right, and thus haven't yet given up the hope that Islam can save itself. One of my major long-term projects is an assessment of moderate Islam's chances of success. One of the Muslim moderates with whom I've been dialoguing for that project tells me that the Salafi interpretation seems insurmountable at first, but as a Muslim gains greater mastery of Arabic and is able to interpret Islamic history on his own, less radical alternative interpretations may seem more compelling.

Nevertheless, Gartenstein-Ross is worried that the Pope Benedict controversy has given the fanatics new ammunition:

...It seems the media would rather condemn the Pope and thus place criticism of Islam off-limits rather than focus on the pathologies in contemporary Islam. This Western response serves to undermine Muslim moderates... [T]he signal we're sending is that we're willing to look the other way and create a ridiculous double-standard: that we're unwilling to hold Muslims accountable for unacceptable behaviour and unacceptable actions.