Ray Carney - Popular Culture, Kitsch, and Symbolism

Popular Culture, Kitsch, and Symbolism

Carney is highly critical of much mainstream art, and the way it is approached from an academic standpoint. He is well-known, and in some circles reviled, for the stridency with which he attacks artists as diverse as Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, the Coen Brothers, Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles and Quentin Tarantino, whom he perceives as tricksters, using empty style and pseudo-intellectualism to score points with an "in" crowd (he often refers to Spielberg's output after Schindler's List as Steven "Please take me seriously" Spielberg movies.)

One well-known example was his 1989 essay on Woody Allen, Modernism for the Millions. In this piece, Carney argues that Allen uses humour in his films to defuse situations that he, the filmmaker, is uncomfortable with, such as drug use and depression. At the same time, says Carney, Allen wants to get credit for bringing up these issues, as that's what serious artists do.

Carney is as critical of the academic establishment that gives plaudits to these artists as he is of the artists themselves. He feels that symbolism is a "high school" understanding of art, and that this kind of decoder ring approach is in place because it's easier to grasp and makes those that teach feel more important and esoteric.