A Pauline Kael Quote

Here’s an interesting quote from famed film critic Pauline Kael, from an essay, “Are Movies Going to Pieces?” dating from December 1964:

“The ‘pure’ cinema enthusiast who doesn’t react to a film but feels he should, and so goes back to it over and over, is not responding as an individual but as a compulsive good pupil determined to appreciate what his cultural superiors say is art. Movies are on their way into academia when they are turned into a matter of duty, and in this country respect for High Culture is becoming a ritual.”

This situation today of course holds true even more for literature than for film. What we see now, even from the youngest generations—especially from them—is an unwillingness or inability to question the accepted premises handed down to them. The assumed gods. Which is not the path toward vibrant living art forms; only stagnating status quos. Dead art.