Yesterday I went through some of my old composition books after cleaning up my desk, and stumbled across a quote I wrote down in February 2014 and then forgot:
It is not the office of art to spotlight alternatives, but to resist by its form alone the course of the world, which permanently puts a pistol to men’s heads.
Theodor Adorno, “Commitment”
As usual with Adorno, I find it a bit difficult to understand exactly what he means—”resist by its form alone”?—but also intriguing. Art is not just a harmless pastime, a luxury for our “down times”. It’s our ally as we face a world that’s pointing a gun at us.
And although many of us, including me, are so far spending most of our COVID-19 quarantine time in the comfort of our own homes, for “essential” workers—health-care, food service, and grocery store workers—the suddenly unemployed, the people who can’t pay their bills or rent, and more, the world’s gun is at their head.
As a writer (or any other kind of artist), do we have anything to offer them better than a temporary escape? Can we help them resist? Art is not a substitute for providing them material support—honoring strikes, joining in mutual aid efforts, demanding our governments support and protect us—but it’s something worth pondering as we try to make art for others as well as ourselves in a difficult time, under difficult circumstances. Because sooner or later the gun is pointed at all of us.