As with so many things, Jacques Barzun got there long before I did, writing back in July 1986 for Harper’s that there is an overabundance of art around, and it can’t be properly digested. He was speaking about how the idea that there can’t be too much art was proving problematic when it came time for funding, but what he said at the end of the essay applies broadly to the idea of oversupply: When I hear of someone’s proudly “spending the day at the museum,” I wonder at the effect: The intake is surely akin to that of an alcoholic. Music likewise is anesthetic when big doses — symphony after symphony, opera on top of opera — are administered without respite. We should remember the Greeks’ practice of exposing themselves to one tragic trilogy and one comedy on but a single day each year … The glut has made us into gluttons, who gorge and do not digest.
Too much of a good thing | Greg Stepanich
As with so many things, Jacques Barzun got there long before I did, writing back in July 1986 for Harper’s that there is an overabundance of art around, and it can’t be properly digested. He was speaking about how the idea that there can’t be too much art was proving problematic when it came time for funding, but what he said at the end of the essay applies broadly to the idea of oversupply: When I hear of someone’s proudly “spending the day at the museum,” I wonder at the effect: The intake is surely akin to that of an alcoholic. Music likewise is anesthetic when big doses — symphony after symphony, opera on top of opera — are administered without respite. We should remember the Greeks’ practice of exposing themselves to one tragic trilogy and one comedy on but a single day each year … The glut has made us into gluttons, who gorge and do not digest.
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