[Memes eXodus] The "Verdict of Time"

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                                                                       Author
                                                                  Memes 
eXodus

The "Verdict of Time" : The leading note of every age is struck by those 
creators who are the most robust and intense. Our own era, it might be called 
by our successors "The age of Proust or "The age of Joyce," or the "The age 
of Spielberg," it may be defined above all as the age of poetry and movie, 
or... who knows. When more ephemeral productions are buried in oblivion, only 
a few masterpieces may emerge, marked by intense energy imparted to them by 
their imaginative creators. Guillaume Apollinaire,  a charming and delicate 
poet, but e robust critic,  who interpreted  Cubism to the 20th Century 
generations and is considered the father of Surrealism declared before his 
death:  "All the artistic  works of an  age mold  themselves, in the end, on 
the most energetic, the most expressive, the most typical creation of the 
age."

The "verdict of time" is in fact the judgment of a very few enthusiasts, and 
as Arnold Bennet define it:

"Why does the great and universal fame of classical authors continue? The 
answer is that the fame of classical authors is entirely independent of the 
majority...It is made and maintained by a passionate few... It is the 
passionate few that the renown of genius is kept alive from one generation  
to another... The  majority can make a reputation, but it is to careless to 
maintain it... The few  conquered by their obstinacy alone, by their eternal 
repetition of the same statements."

The ancients were aware of this and dismissed the "profanum vulgus;"  
Voltaire, whom some moderns revere as the ancestor of the democracy, wrote to 
the chief of the police Herault in 1734 that he should only listen to the 
opinion of a few chosen minds on his books, "because the vulgar is always and 
everywhere led by a small number of exceptional men, in literature and 
politics."

The passionate few, single out a few symphonies by Beethoven, a few overtures 
by Wagner, a few "Lieder" by Shumman or a few cantos by Verdi, to be heard 
forever. The passionate few, if they are successful, are soon joined by the 
snobs and the publishers, and/or the art dealers; the public opinion creators 
are submissively followed by the public and the crowds who are only too glad 
to echo the verdict of the "experts." 

The public can never express a sincere opinion on Oedipus Rex, Divine Comedy. 
King Lear, Andromaque, or War and Peace. The "experts" are the gregarious 
troop  which tyrannizes over timid souls under the name of posterity.

The Impressionist "movement" in painting began in obscurity and ridicule. 
Manet, in 1863, was hated and abused, gradually he won to his vision 
Pissarro, Monet. Monet in his turn won Renoir and Bazille; Cezanne joined the 
group in 1874, for their first group exhibition. The public, remained 
bitterly hostile until 1887, it accepted Renoir only in 1892 and Cezanne much 
later. Four or five enthusiasms admirer of these painters (Dure, Durand-Ruel, 
Vollard, Geffroy, etc.) succeeded in getting them accepted by an unanimous 
adverse public. This is the power of the public opinion creators.

Let close this visit to posterity with a remark on Dante  by Voltaire: "Dante 
will always be admired, because no one ever read him".
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