If art is the answer, what is the question? OK, here’s a question. Who had more hair, Simon or Garfunkel? (Ba-dum-pum.) Now here’s a serious art question. How do we escape the Frantic Culture of Now, that shallow, shifting, ephemeral world with its hyped-up sense of urgency, its fomo (fear of missing out), its confusion of recency with importance, its preoccupation with what is hot and what is cool (ignoring the first law of thermodynamics, which guarantees both will soon be lukewarm), and its surrender to the natterings of social media and the onrush of forgettable memes? I think you can guess my answer. I would go so far as to say that the more we submit to the Frantic Culture of Now, the more we forget what culture even is. Yes, culture has a vibrant present. But it also has memories, and memories of memories. This is where art lives and where The Necessary invites you to hang out.
Need help “following”? I’ve heard that visitors to The Necessary don’t always see a Follow button on the homepage or other pages. In theory, a small floating box is supposed to appear in the lower right corner of the page — but it’s skittish. I’ve added a clearer Follow button on top of the navigation menu. If you still have trouble, email me and I’ll send you an official invitation to follow us.
“You read something which you thought only happened to you, and you discover that it happened 100 years ago to Dostoyevsky. This is a very great liberation for the suffering, struggling person, who always thinks that he is alone.”
JAMES BALDWIN