12-01-2022, 12:35 PM
"Today they are teaching the subject of art as a frill in school, partly due to intellectual preciousness that has crept into art departments with the making of the History of Art.
Intellectualising places art on an unattainable pedestal only for the few, causing New Zealanders to revert to that invented snobbery that tends to ignore anything arty as exotic, unattainable, not wholesome.
Music has a better chance but music is mathematical, has formula, otherwise Beethoven couldn’t have made music after his deafness. You cannot have a blind artist. The universities should need formulas to pass exams in the subjects of the soul, comparing them. There is no comparison between sound & reason, or shape & colour & reason. The intelligence of each individual can only be judged by his works. His gray matter is trained a different way. Art ignores reason, works on emotional skills, & judgement should be totally visual. It is envy that gets in the way of correct assessment. Why should artists have to pass the same exams as anyone else."
Yvonne Rust, maverick spirit, Theresa Sjoquist
"If a woman was poor it was considered her fault. If her children went hungry, it was blamed on her flawed character.
Poverty was considered a crime, conveniently alleviating the conscience of the upper classes.
Poorhouses were designed to be as miserable as possible to discourage use by people who needed help most. Food rations, deemed an ‘efficient test of poverty’ were half the amount served in prisons, just enough to keep the worker inmates on their feet. The workhouse was a death sentence for 23% of those who entered, a mortality rate more than double that for the homeless.
Basic expenses required at least 5 shillings a week, exceeding her earnings in spite of working overtime. In neighbourhoods like Goosedubbs st, rent cost 1 shilling & sixpence, oatmeal & flour, one shilling & ten pence. Potatoes, 5 pence for a large sack; candles & fuel, one shilling & two pence.
In his Essay on the principle of population, published in 1798, Thomas Robert Malthus argued that in accordance with the laws of nature, famine & starvation would weed out the poor, thus alleviating the strain of population growth on modern civilisation. He recommended that the underprivileged be prevented from marrying & having children. A father of three, he felt exempt from this proclamation because of his wealth.
A controversial celebrity of his time, Malthus advocated against the Poor laws & any assistance that might help sustain the struggling.
This was the brand of popular thinking that permitted the abuses of power under the Transportation act, including shipping twenty five thousand girls & women to the other side of the world."
Deborah J Swiss, The tin ticket; the heroic journey of Australia’s convict women.
Intellectualising places art on an unattainable pedestal only for the few, causing New Zealanders to revert to that invented snobbery that tends to ignore anything arty as exotic, unattainable, not wholesome.
Music has a better chance but music is mathematical, has formula, otherwise Beethoven couldn’t have made music after his deafness. You cannot have a blind artist. The universities should need formulas to pass exams in the subjects of the soul, comparing them. There is no comparison between sound & reason, or shape & colour & reason. The intelligence of each individual can only be judged by his works. His gray matter is trained a different way. Art ignores reason, works on emotional skills, & judgement should be totally visual. It is envy that gets in the way of correct assessment. Why should artists have to pass the same exams as anyone else."
Yvonne Rust, maverick spirit, Theresa Sjoquist
"If a woman was poor it was considered her fault. If her children went hungry, it was blamed on her flawed character.
Poverty was considered a crime, conveniently alleviating the conscience of the upper classes.
Poorhouses were designed to be as miserable as possible to discourage use by people who needed help most. Food rations, deemed an ‘efficient test of poverty’ were half the amount served in prisons, just enough to keep the worker inmates on their feet. The workhouse was a death sentence for 23% of those who entered, a mortality rate more than double that for the homeless.
Basic expenses required at least 5 shillings a week, exceeding her earnings in spite of working overtime. In neighbourhoods like Goosedubbs st, rent cost 1 shilling & sixpence, oatmeal & flour, one shilling & ten pence. Potatoes, 5 pence for a large sack; candles & fuel, one shilling & two pence.
In his Essay on the principle of population, published in 1798, Thomas Robert Malthus argued that in accordance with the laws of nature, famine & starvation would weed out the poor, thus alleviating the strain of population growth on modern civilisation. He recommended that the underprivileged be prevented from marrying & having children. A father of three, he felt exempt from this proclamation because of his wealth.
A controversial celebrity of his time, Malthus advocated against the Poor laws & any assistance that might help sustain the struggling.
This was the brand of popular thinking that permitted the abuses of power under the Transportation act, including shipping twenty five thousand girls & women to the other side of the world."
Deborah J Swiss, The tin ticket; the heroic journey of Australia’s convict women.
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)