Kitsch

Morris Berman hates kitsch, and his book "The Twilight of American Culture" awards it, and the predominance of it in our lives, first place among the facets of American culture he finds lacking. "Kitsch" is a German word which roughly translates as "trash," but a single word can't convey what kitsch is. We all know it when we see it, but nobody as ever been able to come up with a satisfactory, comprehensive definition that covers all cases.

Anyone who's culturally literate would know with a single glance that the painter Thomas Kinkade is the acme of kitsch -- it almost goes without saying. But what is it about a genuine artist, Chuck Close for example, that makes him the real thing? Putting aside the obvious differences in subject matter, the fact that Kinkade's work avoids any close observation of living creatures while Close's consists almost entirely of human faces, what we find on the one hand is sentimentality and romantic idealization, and on the other, a total absence of those things.

The Czech writer Milan Kundera came up with one of the best rubrics, defining kitsch as "the absolute denial of shit." He maintains that kitsch is sanitized art which edits out everything we find difficult to deal with. Kitsch, according to Kundera, gives us a Walt Disneyish world (try Disneyland's "Main Street" for 3-D kitsch) where "all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions." And I suppose the question devotees of kitsch are most anxious to preclude is, "What does it mean?"

Kundera's definition certainly applies to the comparison between Kinkade and Close. How well does it stand up when applied to other, similar comparisons?

If Celine Dion is essence of kitsch, Judy Collins is the real deal. The age difference is irrelevant. Collins was always the real deal.

But right there Kundera's definition begins to break down a little. Does Collins really make an effort to challenge us, or expose us to elements of life we find difficult to deal with, in the same way Chuck Close does?

Jessica Simpson is kitsch. Hillary Swank is not kitsch (even though she won beaucoup awards for starring in a kitsch movie, "Million Dollar Baby"). But what's the difference? I mean, besides the fact that one has talent and the other is a totem pole with yellow hair and tits.

Usually, but not always, kitsch is a commercial product, like Jessica Simpson and Thomas Kinkade's work, while the genuine article is a sincere expression of something, but its sincerity doesn't necessarily prevent it from being marketed right alongside kitsch.

So how do you tell the difference? It requires that most bourgeois of cultivated traits, taste.

Lawrence Welk's band was pure kitsch writ large; Count Basie's band in its heyday was a bona fide cultural gem, but no standard other than standards of taste could tell you that. Kundera's definition breaks down completely when applied to the comparison of Welk and Basie. Both were commercial enterprises, and Welk's kitschy cornball sound was, in its own way, the sincere expression of an aesthetic.

In a very real sense, the current government is institutional kitsch. Its every action is predicated on an idealized, sentimentalized, and sanitized version of America's role in the world and its history. It's a view that denies reality by censoring the negative facts, then proceeds as if its own kitschy self-conception was real. It's a Norman Rockwell painting come to life.

And I'll leave you with this final irony about kitsch: many of the artists who produce the stuff are actually talented. Norman Rockwell was a prodigiously gifted draftsman and painter, and his work is the purest kitsch imaginable.

See also Wikipedia: Kitsch.

I'd appreciate some feedback, input, and discussion on this one, and maybe some help.