So, I need to write a fat paper for my final Master's Degree course here at NYU. I had an idea for a topic and thought what a better forum of intellectuals to toss this around with than SZ! So here goes, it's music related but I think the same thing can be applied to fashion in that same elements can squash creativity in any "art".</p>
Here's the proposal I send my prof:</p>
I
want to talk about what it means to be creative under oppression
through the life of Shostakovich, since he was one of the few composers
to stay behind in Russia during the Communist revolution. I will focus
less on the details of his life (so it doesn't get book report-y) and
more on how he worked to express himself within political confines and
how he was able to critique the system from within. I also had an idea
for another element, but it might go beyond the scope of the paper. To
keep the piece relevant, I thought I could talk about how today many
people complain about the dying out of a creative environment in NYC,
and specifically how irrelevant classical music has become to most of
society and what means of "oppression" (in NYC) may have led to this.
For example: profit(market)-driven art, academic dogma, academic competition, NYC's inaccessibility to the non-rich, and lack of opportunity for new music
within the classical world.</p>
Discuss.
</p>
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