Question

Discussing Art inDays of Scrolling andOutrage"
by Sam Hyer
Internet reactivity isn’t going anywhere. We can’t simplyroll back the years to some imagined and largelyfictitious time of broad cultural consensus. The vision ofa society in which people either agree outright ordisagree only within agreed parameters of divergenceis 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 veryexperience of art. In this conception of the future, wewould invest our energy not in dampening down thenoise, or blocking our ears to the clamour, but revellingin its disorder, accepting that the process of being borninto and through, a churning, primordial chaos ofresponse, is simply one stage in the journey of bothartworks and ideas, from which they will emergetarnished but probably not destroyed, or—much likeHambling’s nude atop her mountain of frothing, fertilematter—stress-tested and freshly resplendent, polishednot by reverence, but by the productive friction of anecessarily troubled emergence.
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A)
Use the passage to answer the question.
The article “In these days of scrolling andoutrage, have we lost our ability to discuss art?”by Sam Byers addresses the public’s response toMaggi Hambling’s sculpture for early feministMary Wollstonecraft, which is a naked“everywoman” on top of a hilly column of silver.The online responses were mostly critical.
How does the connotation for the word fertilecontribute to the author’s point of view?
(1 point)
The negative connotation supports the
author’s opinion that the public should not
respond to artwork in an online forum
because it breeds conflict.
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.
The positive connotation contributes to the
author’s point of view that we should
embrace the abundant responses to art.

Answer 1

The positive connotation contributes to the author’s point of view that we should embrace the abundant responses to art.
It suggests generative, productive chaos that helps art be "stress-tested" and renewed.