In the West, the arts themselves have meandered, or sometimes deliberately ventured, in directions distant from a traditional notion of beauty. In the West and increasingly elsewhere, the high arts no longer try to document reality faithfully: That assignment has long since been assigned to the realms of photography and audio recording. The high arts no longer feature poems that neatly scan, or musical compositions that contain textbook harmony and regular beats; nor do they give pride of place to literary works with a classic "heroic" plot comprising a protagonist, an obstacle, the obstacle overcome, and an ending in which all—or at least the good guys—live happily ever after. Importantly, these artistic trends unfolded gradually, over many years. Far from being a consequence of postmodernism, they were catalytic in its emergence and its choice of name.
This state of affairs across the arts has led to a dismissal, on the part of many authorities, of the concept of beauty. Consider the testimony of fine-arts scholar Laurie Fendrich: "We who live in this speedy, diverse, more or less democratic society are, deep down, fairly suspicious of beauty. Beauty is based on a hierarchy that labels some things undeniably 'beautiful' and others irretrievably ugly. Most serious, inventive, and 'alive' contemporary artists do not want merely to reiterate elements of this established hierarchy." And indeed, post- modernist sympathizers like Fendrich are justified in challenging "beauty" as the sine qua non of all artistic experiences. But we should not, dismiss the concept because of the particular powers that happened to invoke or to banish it.
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