the rix mix

On Being Blog posted this quote today:

“If it is art — if it is honest to God, card-carrying, well done, well-crafted, well-honed art — it comes up so sweetly against the side of religion that they are essentially kissing each other. We can’t escape the fact that somehow the religion is concerned with the subjective world, as is art. And they share a territory that somehow circumvents or circumscribes the mind, and they have a conversation together.”

—Phyllis Tickle, from “A Return to Mystery: Religion, Fantasy, and Entertainment”

Nice, huh?  Sorry, no. The second  & third sentences are alright. The over-refinement of the first sentence rubs me the wrong way. I can hardly imagine a statement more antithetical to what I think. What the heck is she talking about? It's like saying God doesn't appreciate "wrong" notes,  or a  crooked asymmetrical  flower struggling up from a crack in the pavement. Who decides when art is "kissing" religion, merely waving at it, or inseparable from it? Where do we  get this art "card" for carrying? I suspect from well-meaning aesthetes like Phyllis Tickle. Put some  red hot  pepper sauce on your scrambled eggs,  Phyliss.

Labels: art, culture, religion