EIBF: Art is Democratic

Saturday, 21 August 2010 

The weekend vibe at the Book Festival was matched with a sterling line up of events. The famous contemporary philosopher A.C. Grayling was a prime attraction, leaving no spare seats in the RBS Main Tent. Grayling is famed for simplifying the convoluted rhetoric of philosophy, and making it accessible to everyone. Accessible, but by no means simplistic, Grayling’s new book, Thinking about Answers: Questions in the Philosophy of Everyday Life, takes up all the most difficult challenges posed by life and philosophy.

Grayling spoke on many issues, but kept coming back to the nature and purpose of philosophy in our lives. Philosopshy isn’t reserved for dusty bookshelves in dark, dank libraries, but is a process that we engage in all the time – whenever we think about problems in our life, attempt to make decisions, and form relationships with people around us. Most striking about Grayling is his illimitable faith in the goodness of humanity, or what he calls, “The Good Life”.

“But I’m not a moralist” Grayling insists, and indeed, the feeling one gets listening to him is not the type of emotion induced by a religious sermon. Rather, Grayling has passion for all things in life, so long as they are not harmful to others. In fact, he argues that much of what has been historically classed as “morality” is actually “life-denying”, and cuts across the very grain of what it means to be human.

He even told jokes: “The masochist says to the sadist, ‘Hit me, hit me!’, and the sadist says, ‘No’.” Yes, it really did have people sniggering away in their seats, myself included.

“Disagreement is good!” Grayling exclaims, because it means you’re thinking critically, and engaging with ideas. He also insisted that children should be taught philosophy in schools because they have incredibly imaginative minds and unconstrained thoughts – “they’re natural philosophers!”

Perhaps most refreshing was the fact that there was no moral judgment in Grayling’s lecture, only the entreaty to think.

Following Grayling was an event in my favourite festival venue, The Highland Park Spiegeltent. I love the darkened cabaret style tent, with it’s round tables and chairs, the bar at the back, the nooks around the side.

And of course, the style of talks and debates that take place there are highly engaging as they bring together several writers, journalists, or in this case, prominent cultural spokespersons. On the panel of A Manifesto for Culture was Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop, director of the National Theatre of Scotland Vicky Featherstone, and director of Tate Britain Penelope Curtis. The event was chaired by Guardian chief arts writer Charlotte Higgins.

The discussion did what it said on the tin – trying to foresee the future of culture in light of financial constraints and the development of technology. The debate was, however, somewhat constrained, as everyone seemed to be on the same side. They all vouched for the necessity for a combination of public and private funding, yet complete artistic independence from the government. Featherstone mentioned that in Scotland, the government is very supportive of artistic ventures, but she isn’t sure that the same is true in England, where spending cuts are hitting artistic institutions quite hard – she voiced her concern that we may soon see a return to the “Thatcher desert” if things keep on the same way. I was particularly moved by Curtis’ exposition of the term “culture” which she related to idea of something that allows things to grow, as she highlighted the importance of both nurturing new growth, and also sustaining old growth.  

They all vouched for the importance of the live experience, as opposed to replications which are so freely available on the internet. Yet, they recognized that keeping art as something expensive or elite takes it away from people, so agreed that the internet is integral in delivering art to those that cannot access it otherwise.

The overarching sentiments of these two talks returned me to Jeanette Winterson’s statement a few days ago, where she pronounced “Art is democratic”, and vouched that it is for everyone. Both Grayling, and the panel at A Manifesto for Culture, made this point wholeheartedly- with absolutely no exception.