The Value—and Limits—of Seeking Comfort in Art

Critics at Large | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Society & Culture

4.4 • 679 Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2024

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One of the most fundamental features of art is its ability to meet us during times of distress. In the early days of the pandemic, many people turned to comfort reads and beloved films as a form of escapism; more recently, in the wake of the election, shows such as “The Great British Bake Off” have been offered up on group chats as a balm. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz consider the value—and limits—of seeking solace in culture. Comfort art has flourished in recent years, as evidenced by the rise of genres such as“romantasy” and the “cozy thriller.” But where is the line between using art as a salve and tuning out at a moment when politics demands our engagement? “One of the purposes of the comfort we seek is to sustain us,” Schwartz says. “That’s what we all are going to need: sustenance to move forward.”

Read, watch, and listen with the critics:

“The Crown” (2016-2023)
“Sesame Street” (1969-)
“The Great British Bake Off” (2010-)
“In Tumultuous Times, Readers Turn to ‘Healing Fiction,’ ” by Alexandra Alter (The New York Times)
Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” (1950-2000)
“Uncut Gems” (2019)
“Somebody Somewhere” (2022-)
“3 Terrific Specials to Distract You from the News,” by Jason Zinoman (The New York Times)
“Tom Papa: Home Free” (2024)
“America, Don’t Succumb to Escapism,” by Kristen Ghodsee (The New Republic)
“Candide,” by Voltaire
Beth Stern’s Instagram
“Janet Planet” (2023)
Marvin Gaye’s “What's Going On”
Donny Hathaway’s “Extension of a Man”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Critics at Large, a podcast from The New Yorker. I'm Alex Schwartz. I'm Nomi Fry. And I'm Vincent Cunningham. Each week on this show, we make sense of what's happening in the culture right now and how we got here. How you guys doing?
0:21.2	How did we get here?
0:23.2	Yeah, big question.
0:24.2	I don't really know how to answer this question.
0:25.9	Personally, I'm okay. I don't think things are okay.
0:31.3	Things are. Yeah. I agree, Alex. I think it's hard to answer this question at this juncture.
0:38.4	And listeners, if you're anything like us, you have been really turning over and over and over in your head this how we got here question since the election.
0:48.8	I, for one, I don't know about you guys, but I've been trading theories in my group chats.
0:52.9	I've been digging through op-eds
0:54.3	and more newsletters than I care to admit that I subscribe to just to see what, you know, smart
1:00.3	writers and thinkers have to say. But just to let listeners kind of into the behind the scenes
1:06.8	of our show a little bit, with so many of us, as we should be, laser focused on politics, the three of us have
1:15.7	really been thinking hard about what a show like ours can offer.
1:21.8	And on some level, that questioning produced the topic of today's show, right?
1:27.4	What can art do for us in moments of great political, social, upheaval, unreality, right?
1:37.6	Especially in a time where so many people are disaffected, kind of numb,
1:47.0	and are, for that reason, looking to art to kind of escape the moment
1:52.0	instead of engaging more deeply with it.
1:55.0	Yeah, I mean, speaking for myself, I feel like something I've been really craving. I think it's something I always crave to an extent as a kind of nervous and anxious person by nature, especially when reality kind of steps in a way that demands our attention in ways that are more than usually anxiety producing. I feel like I've been really seeking
2:23.1	comfort. I would love for art and culture to give me some sort of sense of escapism from the
2:33.3	current reality. And I don't't know and I feel like it's
2:36.8	complicated like I don't know that that's necessarily like I questioned that impulse and myself I don't
	...

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