Superlative adulations rewiring cultural expectations
The brilliant W. David Marx observing that Our Geniuses Define Our Times:
"Fastball down the middle" is a pretty good metaphor for a Taylor Swift song. The fastball is the most common pitch, which goes exactly where the batter thinks it will go. Much like a fastball, Swift's music is a driving, high-energy version of a classic pop song, which she achieves through the deployment of the exact chord progressions and melodies that her audience expects. Now to extend the metaphor, the opposite of a Taylor Swift song would be a curveball, which at first appears to be normal but suddenly swerves in another direction. Where fastball songs deliver to expectations, curveballs surprise.
...the 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant's definition of what makes an artist a "genius." He laid out three criteria for attaining genius status: (1) the creation of fiercely original works (2) which over time become imitated as exemplars, and (3) are created through mysterious and seemingly inimitable methods.
So we can conclude that "genius" in 2025 is no longer Kantian. Many may celebrate this as greater egalitarianism, and my annoying use of the word "Kantian" very likely bolsters their case. This outcome also may be an inevitable outcome of the avant-garde's success. As Jameson writes, "For generations which have been raised on modernistic and stylized art and decoration and for whom such stylization needs no defense and seems utterly natural, an inner tension and dynamism seems to have gone out of the polemic." This describes our times very well. There's no more urgency in uplifting Kantian geniuses when we're born into a world permanently brightened by their innovations.But the designation of certain people as geniuses has long-term consequences. The artistic exemplars set the horizon for future behavior across the entire cultural ecosystem. In 1937, the painter and theorist John D. Graham wrote, "Without genius" — and he means Kantian genius — "all the cultural activities of humanity would soon degenerate into clichés." Well, where are we when our "geniuses" achieve their superlative status through the active embrace of cliché?
A brilliant piece of writing, do read the whole thing.