BEFORE: Art is created and interpreted in many different ways. Exploring the importance of art and the role it has played in developing our society has made me come to realize that it is an essential part of life. I didn’t realize there was a controversy around the importance of art until reading Rhy Southan’s “Is Art a Waste of Time?”. Art has undoubtedly played an essential role in developing different cultures all around the world and creating an exciting environment to live. I believe art should be looked at in a positive light as a tool with the power to elicit a response; however, there are communities that would suggest there are much better and more productive ways of spending your time. Art being an ineffective use of time is an interesting notion, the real question is, what can we change with the power of art?
AFTER: I didn’t realize there was a controversy around the importance of art until reading Rhy Southan’s “Is Art a Waste of Time?”. I believe art should be looked at in a positive light as a tool with the power to elicit a response; however, there are communities that would suggest there are much better and more productive ways of spending your time. A group called the ‘Effective Altruists’ assert the idea that your time should be spent helping those who are suffering. Although this sounds like a great proposal, the altruists use unattractive methods to advertise their mission. Because the altruists promote their ideas in an aggressive manner, it’s hard to rationalize getting on their side. I had never thought to associate negativity and art until reading Rhy Southan’s piece.
BEFORE: Rhy Southan is a freelance writer who took a trip that made him see art through many different lenses. Southan highlights the details of his experience in his essay, “Is Art a Waste of Time?”. The trip was designed for privileged Westerns to understand the effects of global poverty and to attempt to help and reduce it. Southan was quickly confronted with an opportunity; He could finish his screenplay and entertain some people, or he could drop everything and donate all that money to charity. As outlandish as this sounds, that was the proposition made by Sam Hilton. Sam is a member of a community called ‘Effective Altruists’ who believe that everyone should try and do as much good as possible in the world, over the course of their lives. Furthermore, you should work as hard as you can, earn as much money as you can, then donate as much as you can to effect as much change as possible. Although Southan was initially taken back by this concept, he starts to consider the possibility that they’re right. Southan speaks with members of the EA community that used to be artists. Some of the altruists loved the idea of promoting altruism through art, the dilemma arises when they consider the possibility that there could be a more effective use of time and resources. Michael Bitton wanted to be a filmmaker when he eventually asked himself if it would do any real good in the world. After exploring the ideas of the altruists, Southan ultimately decides that art does have a place in this world and he wants to continue to practice it.
AFTER: Rhy Southan got to explore art and its’ relationship with suffering while on his paradigm shifting trip with the effective altruists. The trip was designed for privileged Westerns to understand the effects of global poverty and to attempt to help and reduce it. The altruists use extremely aggressive tactics to make Southan feel remorseful about being an artist. Southan was quickly confronted with a perplexing decision; He could finish his screenplay and entertain some people, or he could drop everything and donate all that money to charity. As outlandish as this sacrifice sounds, that was the proposition made by Sam Hilton. Sam is a member of the effective altruist community who believe that everyone should try and do as much good as possible in the world, over the course of their lives. Furthermore, you should work as hard as you can, earn as much money as you can, then donate as much as you can to effect as much change as possible. The EA’s believe art, unless its the best in the world, doesn’t have the power to effect much change; so they suggest ditching your pursuit of art to dedicate your time to more fruitful efforts.
Although Southan was initially taken back by this concept, he starts to consider the possibility that they’re right. Southan speaks with members of the EA community that used to be artists, but later sacrificed their goals and conformed to EA principles. Michael Bitton wanted to be a filmmaker when he eventually asked himself if it would do any real good in the world. Some of the altruists loved the idea of promoting altruism through art, the dilemma arises when they consider the possibility that there could be a more effective use of time and resources. After exploring the ideas of the altruists, Southan ultimately decides that art does have a place in this world and he wants to continue to practice it.
EXPLANATION: I realized throughout my essay I was dancing around the idea that the ea’s form of recruiting was uncomfortable and forceful. I hadn’t incorporated this in my intro, I decided to add it in. The little seagull talked about topic sentences and sticking to the point, that lead me to put my high stakes sentence as the first sentence in the essay to start the reader contemplating what this ‘controversy’ might entail. I also introduced the EA so the reader has an idea of the direction we’re going in. The second paragraph was too long and had too many points. In the little seagull, they discussed reasons to start a new paragraph. I found it would be much less confusing if i gave the reader a break in the paragraph and highlight two separate ideas.
