Question
Discussing Art in Days of Scrolling and Outrage"
by Sam Hyer
Internet reactivity isn’t going anywhere. We can’t simply roll back the years to some imagined and largely fictitious time of broad cultural consensus. The vision of a society in which people either agree outright or disagree only within agreed parameters of divergence is both a mirage and actually a nightmare.
Rather than recoiling from the noise of outcry, then, perhaps we might try, as both artists and audience, leaning into it, and even absorbing it into the very experience of art. In this conception of the future, we would invest our energy not in dampening down the noise, or blocking our ears to the clamour, but revelling in its disorder, accepting that the process of being born into and through, a churning, primordial chaos of response, is simply one stage in the journey of both artworks and ideas, from which they will emerge tarnished but probably not destroyed, or—much like Hambling’s revealing atop her mountain of frothing, fertile matter—stress-tested and freshly resplendent, polished not by reverence, but by the productive friction of a necessarily troubled emergence.
Use the passage to answer the question.
The article “In these days of scrolling and outrage, have we lost our ability to discuss art?” by Sam Byers addresses the public’s response to Maggi Hambling’s sculpture for early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, which is a revealing “everywoman” on top of a hilly column of silver. The online responses were mostly critical.
How does the connotation for the word fertile contribute to the author’s point of view?
The negative connotation supports the author’s opinion that the public should not respond to artwork in an online forum because it makes conflict.
The positive connotation contributes to the author’s point of view that we should embrace the abundant responses to art.
The positive connotation reinforces the author’s view that the sculpture represents Mary Wollstonecraft better than any other depiction of the early feminist.
The negative connotation highlights the author’s view that the online response should be negative in nature.
by Sam Hyer
Internet reactivity isn’t going anywhere. We can’t simply roll back the years to some imagined and largely fictitious time of broad cultural consensus. The vision of a society in which people either agree outright or disagree only within agreed parameters of divergence is both a mirage and actually a nightmare.
Rather than recoiling from the noise of outcry, then, perhaps we might try, as both artists and audience, leaning into it, and even absorbing it into the very experience of art. In this conception of the future, we would invest our energy not in dampening down the noise, or blocking our ears to the clamour, but revelling in its disorder, accepting that the process of being born into and through, a churning, primordial chaos of response, is simply one stage in the journey of both artworks and ideas, from which they will emerge tarnished but probably not destroyed, or—much like Hambling’s revealing atop her mountain of frothing, fertile matter—stress-tested and freshly resplendent, polished not by reverence, but by the productive friction of a necessarily troubled emergence.
Use the passage to answer the question.
The article “In these days of scrolling and outrage, have we lost our ability to discuss art?” by Sam Byers addresses the public’s response to Maggi Hambling’s sculpture for early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, which is a revealing “everywoman” on top of a hilly column of silver. The online responses were mostly critical.
How does the connotation for the word fertile contribute to the author’s point of view?
The negative connotation supports the author’s opinion that the public should not respond to artwork in an online forum because it makes conflict.
The positive connotation contributes to the author’s point of view that we should embrace the abundant responses to art.
The positive connotation reinforces the author’s view that the sculpture represents Mary Wollstonecraft better than any other depiction of the early feminist.
The negative connotation highlights the author’s view that the online response should be negative in nature.
Answers
Answered by
GPT-4o mini
The correct statement regarding the connotation of the word "fertile" in the context of Sam Hyer's article is:
**The positive connotation contributes to the author’s point of view that we should embrace the abundant responses to art.**
In the passage, Hyer suggests that rather than recoiling from the noise of public reaction to art, we should lean into it and embrace the chaos of responses. The use of the word "fertile" conveys a sense of abundance and potential growth, implying that the varied and tumultuous reactions to artwork can lead to rich discussions and deeper understandings. This perspective encourages a view of online discourse as a valuable part of the artistic experience, rather than a mere source of conflict.
**The positive connotation contributes to the author’s point of view that we should embrace the abundant responses to art.**
In the passage, Hyer suggests that rather than recoiling from the noise of public reaction to art, we should lean into it and embrace the chaos of responses. The use of the word "fertile" conveys a sense of abundance and potential growth, implying that the varied and tumultuous reactions to artwork can lead to rich discussions and deeper understandings. This perspective encourages a view of online discourse as a valuable part of the artistic experience, rather than a mere source of conflict.
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