Somebody B Flew Up America Analysis

“The Artist as a Critic”

Oscar Wilder's The Artist as Critic revolves around a debate Gilbert and Ernest discuss over art criticism and analysis. Ernest argues “that in the best days of art there we no art critics.” (Wilder 346). Whereas Gilbert reasons that “it (art criticism) treats the work of art simply as a starting-point for a new creation” (Wilder 367). Sadly, Ernest's blatant ignorance is unable to comprehend that without art criticism, there would be no art to truly value. Wilde's quote means that in order to hold art of all fields at a high prestige, we need critical structure and recognition of historical/political context to support art in order to admire the pure beauty within its relative expertise. “To know the principles
In Amiri Baraka's poem Somebody Blew Up America, released a year after the anniversary of 9/11, he executed a highly controversial piece of writing that was a accused of racism and hatred against Jews, Israelis, and American leaders. The bigoted public treated his work as a literal translation of his opinions and beliefs, when his intentions were to create an ultimate allegoric poem to open the eyes of our country that was unaware of political schemes and inhumane manipulation of our government that was thought to have led to the events of 9/11. Despite such a dispute perhaps liable from governmental course of action, 9/11 was still a fresh wound upon our country that was no where close to recovery due to such loss and tragic deaths. Baraka's poem hit too close to home at the time, people did not want to listen to his radical accusations and unpatriotic rambling about our country getting bombed. “The public's inability to see the poem for what it really is, a high rhetorical statement expressing the writer's ideological investments, signifies a profound lack of understanding of the nature of poetic art—a lack which can be explained by any number of cultural, historical, and institutional factors.” (Gwiazda 16) Baraka's Somebody Blew Up America was a powerful poem that should be praised for its thunderous diction and expertise of faculty. Instead he was removed from the national position as the Poet
As graphic as her poems are, they do not serve as aesthetic platforms that deliver you to your happy place, her work of art leaves a prominent message that is conducive towards delivering a strong testimony about her cultural and spiritual hardships. She opens the mind of the reader and draws a raw picture of her experiences and torments as a native in this intolerant country we call America. Such art that tears at the soul and depicts unpleasant imagery is a powerful form of activist art by bringing awareness to the people about violence and inequities upon Natives, often been covered up by white supremacist governmental officials. Art does not have to be beautiful to convey an influential message, in fact, art in its most vulnerable and raw form reaches the audience by leaving an relevant feeling emotional, effectively capturing a great amount of attention. “The ethical effect of art, its importance to culture, and its place in the formation of character, had been done once for all by Plato; but here we have art treated, not from moral, but from the purely aesthetic point of view.” (Wilder 352) Understanding the elements that create such dramatic pieces of art enable the art critic to take in historical and political contexts to further establish an opinionated analysis of the work. Unlike