Art is valued for its own sake, for its contribution to culture,
not for any further influence upon life, and this freedom has come to
be part of its very meaning. Instead of being interested only in
pictures and statues representing ourselves, our rulers, our gods, or
our neighborhood, we enjoy imitations of people who have had no effect
upon our lives whatever and scenes which we have never visited, and
we repair to museums to see them; instead of employing music to beautify
our daily life, we leave that life for the concert hall, where we shut
ourselves away for a few hours of "absolute" musical experience. Prose
literature and the drama, when inspired by contemporary social problems,
offer exceptions to this isolation, for through their ability to express
ideas they can exert a more pervasive influence. Although social
problems are solved in obedience to forces and demands beyond the
control of artists, literary expression is effective in persuading and
drawing into a movement men whose status would tend to make them hostile
or indifferent, as in Russia, where numerous men and women of the
aristocratic and wealthy classes became revolutionaries by reason of
literature. And yet the literary arts also have acquired a large measure
of isolation and independence. A play representing Viennese life is
appreciated in New York, a novel of contemporary manners in England
is enjoyed in America. Literature does not depend for its interest
upon its ability to interpret and influence the life that the reader
himself lives; he values it more because it extends than because it
reflects that life.
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