Christian "Art"

My Dear Nephew,

You asked me how your patient might be led to avoid beauty. I was momentarily stunned by the intelligence of the question; but then I recalled that you are, despite the frequent evidence to the contrary, my relation.

The good news is that the American church has given up on art. (Have you seen their movies?) No contemporary Christian art is dangerous. Let him wallow in Thomas Kincaid and whatever other Christian kitsch catches his fancy; pastel puritanism can do us no harm.

Neither can critically acclaimed ‘fine’ art. They’ve chosen controversy over beauty so completely that the whole enterprise would collapse if it wasn’t such a convenient way to launder money.

But I fear for the future of art. We’ve never been able to fully extinguish the humans’ instinctual desire for beauty. We’ve corrupted culture’s commanding heights, but the mob still thirsts for the sublime.

Innocent rubes are making art for the joy of it, and I shudder to report that some of it isn’t bad. I fear that technology is undermining hell by democratizing the creation and distribution of art.

Today, the only way to make a movie is to raise millions of dollars in Hollywood. That centralization makes our work easier. But when any fool with a computer can make a full movie in his basement, I’m afraid that we will see movies that don’t try to stuff hell’s best ideas down the throats of the masses. These truly independent movies could be - I shudder to consider it - good.

But today, the oldest problem remains the most dangerous: nature. Don’t let your patient indulge in even a walk through the park, let alone a long weekend in the mountains. Make sure he sleeps through the sunrise and is trapped in a cubicle each sunset. I fear the change of leaves in the fall and the audacity of wildflower weeds in the spring. You can lose a soul to a single rose.

Keep him glued to a screen. For now, at least, that is safe.

Yours,

Mulcifer