Art Police

Matt Yglesias on judging art by the politics of the artist:

Surely there's nothing more annoying on this earth than complaining about the politics views of prize-winning artists. If you have some critique of Harold Pinter's plays to offer, then by all means offer it. If you think Pablo Neruda is a bad poet, then make your case. But if you think Neruda shouldn't win prizes for his poetry because he was a Communist, then you've sunk into a real cesspool of philistinism. Shakespeare was a monarchist -- get him out of the schools! That's just dumb.

Not much to add here except that, no matter his political stances (which were indeed asinine), Pinter's plays are often brilliant, and they paved the way for writers as brilliant and diverse as Aaron Sorkin, The Coen Brothers and David Mamet.

This is, however, different from judging a piece of art by its political poisitions. There's enough to say about that issue for an essay (which I hope to write someday), but the short of it is that it is important for pundits to remember that good art can be made in service of rather moronic political claptrap, and that, vice-versa, good politics in no way gaurantees good art.