Marcuse on Art

"The work of art cannot be comprehended in terms of social theory, neither can it be comprehended in terms of philosophy. Art has its own language and illuminates reality only through this language. (It) communicates truths not communicable in any other language: it contradicts... What appears in art as remote from the praxis of change demands recognition as a necessary element in a future praxis of liberation... Art cannot change the world, but it can contribute to changing the consciousness and drives of the men and women who could change the world." -Herbert Marcuse Bogartted from J Karl

Against the notion that "there's nothing new under the sun"

It's easy to see that since social conditions are always changing, we always need to make new statements about how to navigate them. Maybe the universal laws of nature are fixed, and physicists eventually will stop discovering rules of moving bodies, but the problem of understanding how human nature runs up against these rules will always perplex the true artist.