“The slaughter of reputations in the cultural life of this country is scandalous. (It’s funny how, as I write it, the very phrase ‘cultural life’ strikes me as archaie.) The fact is, all too few reputations remain intact among us. We erase history even as we make it–‘we cancel our experience.’ Reverence is rare, even for the most renowned; instead, there is a fundamental indifference toward those vociferiously touted, and the ones who have ‘made it’ are soon enough unmade.”
Harold Clurman, All People Are Famous (Instead of an Autobiography)
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
