I do not find much to argue with in Mr. Bellow’s essay, but I would add this: The most profoundly conservative works of popular culture in recent memory were not produced by conservatives and certainly were not conceived of as conservative projects. In fact, many of them were produced by people one assumes are hostile to conservative views.

(source: Mayhem Is Everywhere | National Review Online)

In a recent exchange with Greg, I had occasion to mention my view that Christians interested in the arts “will need to evolve a manner of speaking that (1) retrenches within the Christian tradition and (2) sees whatever is real, whatever is True and Beautiful and Good that is *actually* presented, even in fiction, even in secular work, for our appreciation. That will be the Second Innocence of Christendom.”  I think this article hints us in that direction (see also the essay Greg links, and the Adam Bellow essay Williamson refers to; I approve the direction Williamson is extending Bellow).

Incidentally, Williamson is simply repeating post-Romantic ideology, and not any real canon of aesthetics or cultural excellence, when he says that “Didacticism is an enemy of art, and as such it should be in artistic matters rejected by conservatives, whose allegiance should be to aesthetic standards rather than to narrow political and cultural agendas.”  The supplement “narrow” is the giveaway. 

Eh, even Homer nods.