"Only art can explain the life of a man—and not the contrary." Orson Welles, quoted by Simon Callow ("Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu"), quoted by Terry Teachout.
I'm trying to start a serious conversation about art, but I'm guessing there's a hearty subsection of readers whose minds are now going "Xanadu, Xanadu, (now we are here) in Xanadu, Xanadu, Xanadu, (now we are here) in Xanadu, Xanadu, your neon lights will shine for you, Xanadu." But that's art too, isn't it? And that might very well explain the life of a man. But if you see that man coming, run.
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But the same people who think Olivia Newton-John (oh no, not her again) may also remember Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree,
Where Alph the sacred river ran Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea etc.."
Aphorisms like this capture a small sliver of truth in an arresting way, but blur or obscure everything else in the process. Since it's not meant to be taken as anything else, certainly not as the touchstone of any grand theory, there's not much point in pretending otherwise. So there's no point in using this to "start a serious conversation about art," but that was hardly what Ann was up to here anyway.
Besides, nothing about Olivia Newton-John qualifies as art. What is it with this 70s nostalgia bit -- that was a decade that wallowed in tacky ripoffs, and all things considered, would be best forgotten for a while longer. (If only Jimbo the Peanut Farmer would quietly fade away as well.)
Perhaps I'm uncharacteristic, but my first thought was,
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
That damn stoned bastard Coleridge... not only did he wreck Olivia Newton John for me, but he pretty much destroyed Fleetwood Mac ("Albatross") too. On the plus side, I've gotten thoroughly inebrieted in several of the pubs he was known to frequent, so I got that going for me...
Dang. Cross posted.
I think some people are more interested in the biography that the art. Biographies usually don't require us to struggle in the way that good art does. So by reading a biography, we can feel like we have "captured" the artist without doing any of the work.
Biography is good to read if you're interested in making art, because it reassures you that the artist is not another species, but a quirky, crotchety and often doubt-plagued human being. It doesn't explain the art, or even the drive to make the art, but it reassures you that art can happen in the unlikeliest places.
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