Dave Lampson commenting Roger Peter:

>I need art that is striving to reach beyond the mundane, to elevate the
>human condition.

There is a philosophical mater in this sentence, and I could apply you
paragraph on this same mail (with just one change) to say what I think:

>It's interesting: I've seen this claimed over and over again,
>yet I've never seen anything approaching a compelling (if not convincing)
>argument.  ART lovers use this idea all the time as if it was some
>sort of self-evident truth.  I don't believe it is.

That seems a common place and, at least, not realistic.  What you mean
with 'elevate the human condition'? Art lovers don't commit murders, anger,
grief, crime, jealousy, hate, betrayal, etc? Are we better persons because
we like Classical Music? I don't think so.

I would like to suggest a different view, inspired on a recent reading of
Nietsche's "The AntiChrist", in which he point - against all the common and
established sense, that every Moral is a nihilistic movement, because runs
to outside our intrinsic nature.  Obviously a "bomb", considering the
standard definition of Nihilism is (was) absence of a Moral.  But
unreplyable.

I would like to suggest, so, that the human search for Art is not to elevate
human condition, but to skip from it and all it's flatness.

Best Regards,

Renato Vinicius