Advertising could not be understood as simply another form of salesmanship. It aimed at something new--the creation of consumption... communities.... The primary argument of the salesman was personal and private: this hat is perfect for you (singular). His focus was on the individual; he succeeded when he cajoled, flattered, managed, and overwhelmed a particular buyer's ego. The primary argument of the advertisement was public and general: This hat is perfect for you (plural). While the salesman persuaded the customer that the item was peculiarly suited to his unique needs, the advertisement persuaded groups of buyers that the item was well suited to the needs of all persons in the group. The advertisement succeeded when it discovered, defined, and persuaded a new community of consumers.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is just as wrong to judge paintings from the point of view of pictures as it is to judge pictures from the point of view of pai...nting. A painting has its own rule, its own justification within itself. A picture has its criterion outside itself, in the external reality it imitates. Several critics have recently made the remark that nonrepresentational art has this major defect, that being unrelated to external reality, it has no criterion by which it can be judged. The argument would be valid if the art of painting were the art of picturing. As it is, all judgments and appreciations of paintings founded upon their relation to an external model are irrelevant to painting. A painting is the embodiment of a form in a matter; the whole being of a picture is determined by the relationship that obtains between the image itself and some external reality.... As compared with a painting, whose ultimate end is to achieve a fitting object of contemplation, images are characterized by their ambition to represent all the objects they include, and to represent these objects with all the details that are compatible with their pictorial representation.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then th...ere are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Classical art, in a word, stands for form; romantic art for content. The romantic artist expects people to ask, What has he got to... say? The classical artist expects them to ask, How does he say it?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument, that makes a poem,--a thought so passionate and alive, that, like the spirit of... a plant or an animal, it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature with a new thing.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The little lives of earth and form, Of finding food, and keeping warm,... Are not like ours, and yet A kinship lingers nonetheless....LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
My God! The English language is a form of communication! Conversation isn't just crossfire where you shoot and get shot at! Where ...you've got to duck for your life and aim to kill! Words aren't only bombs and bullets--no, they're little gifts, containing meanings!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »