To persist in its own being
In his 1962 book “The Theory of the Avant-Garde” Renato Poggioli observed that “Like any artistic tradition, no matter how antitraditional it may be, the avant-garde also has its conventions.” The most conventional of modernist conventions has been the need to shock and offend, doing so, as the lingo has it, by “transgressing boundaries.” But once all the boundaries have been blurred, what’s left?
Since most folks are uncomfortable with explicit sexual conversation in public, obscenity laws limit such public conversation. But when artists create high quality and hence high status art with explicit sexual discussion, people are reluctant to let obscenity laws apply to it.
