Maybe we’ve stopped creating art. Maybe we’ve instead just started creating ephemera, kitsch, simple repetitions of pop trivia. We, as a culture, have given up on using art to educate, to touch upon the profound, to give life meaning, and are instead content with merely the brief chuckle of recognition at a shared memory. We don’t want novels; we want reenactments of scenes of movies. We don’t want symphonies; we want ring tones of video game themes. We don’t want to be bothered; we want to be entertained.
—Stefan Urquelle, from his book All Your Base Are Belong to Us.
