Why the Arts Are Not Progressive (Essay Review)

Here is my first essay review for the essay "WHY THE ARTS ARE NOT PROGRESSIVE" by William Hazlitt.

Overall I agree with the main idea. Art, unlike other scientific and technological areas, do not progress with time. 

I'm not sure I accept the supporting claims and ideas that Hazlitt uses to defend his main idea.

Specifically, he suggests that geniuses create new art forms and that determine the peak of the art. Hazlitt uses examples of art that I'm not qualified to comment on. I don't know anything about sculpture or painting. I know literature well for a high school English teacher, but I don't know Shakespeare that well. I started a lecture series on Shakespeare by Harold Bloom last night. My daughter and I have been reading the Shakespeare Can Be Fun series by Lois Burdett. It is a lot of fun. The three book we have are all written in rhyming verses. So I'm not finished learning Shakespeare yet.

Bloom makes some very strong claims about Shakespeare. It's difficult to judge these claims because Shakespeare takes a lot of work to read and understand. This barrier of entry to Shakespeare makes me suspicious of Bloom and thus the same applies to Hazlitt.

I see the barrier to Shakespeare, and potentially other art forms that require a significant amount of front loading, as a possible brainwashing phase.

As I mentioned, I'm not very well read in Shakespeare. I took a lower level college literature course on Shakespeare's later work. I really liked the class and learned a lot. Then I taught Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet as an English teacher. That's about it. I don't see Shakespeare as the GOAT. I never read Shakespeare on my own until I started with Burdett's series.

I know I don't have the background to fully engage in Shakespeare without a structured course and or guide. But then I wonder how much that structure and guidance is reinforcing the greatness claim.

Is Shakespeare truly the greatest, or is the idea contagious. The more you try to understand why Shakespeare is the greatest the more likely you'll believe he is the greatest.

Don't get me wrong. Even I can see Shakespeare is great. His use of language alone proves his greatness. His productivity supports it. His range of writing speaks for itself: poems to comedies to tragedies. But the greatest? I don't know. How much time do I have to spend before I can tell? How much time do I have to spend before I get brainwashed?

I recommend the essay.