Alex Ross cites a character in a 1902 Thomas Mann story as an illustration of the developing split between artists and the masses. (page 36) The character berates a store owner for displaying "kitsch." So far, so good. It's the descriptor Ross appends that surprised me; he calls it "art that is merely 'beautiful' and therefore worthless." Now, I can understand that as an accurate term of derision that might be used. But I have never heard or seen the word "kitsch" used that way. I think Wikipedia captures better adjectives: "an inferior, tasteless copy of an existing style. The term is also used more loosely in referring to any art that is pretentious to the point of being in poor taste and also commercially produced items that are considered trite or crass." Also, the sense of "sentimentality." Ross' use seems wrong to me. He seems to be describing something valid--but not kitsch. Zeke *********************************************** The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html