{"id":132,"date":"2010-04-16T05:26:28","date_gmt":"2010-04-16T05:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp\/2010\/04\/beware_the_mushy_middle\/"},"modified":"2010-04-16T05:26:28","modified_gmt":"2010-04-16T05:26:28","slug":"beware_the_mushy_middle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2010\/04\/beware_the_mushy_middle.html","title":{"rendered":"Beware the mushy middle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NYT’s Charles Isherwood writes about what he calls the “odd-man-out” syndrome<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

This can roughly be described as the experience of attending an event
\nat which much of the audience appears to be having a rollicking good
\ntime, while you sit in stony silence, either bored to stupefaction or
\nitchy with irritation, miserably replaying the confluence of life
\ncircumstances that have brought you here. (“Curse that Isherwood!”)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"mush.jpg\"I’d like to offer a related disorder, one that particularly affects critics. Go to a lot of dance or music or theatre and you might find yourself suffering from mushy-middle-itis. Really good performances are easy to write about. Ditto for horrible art. The easiest art to write about is art to which you have a strong reaction – good or bad. Death is having to manufacture a reaction to something that left you with no reaction at all.<\/p>\n

I’m talking about the vast mushy middling center that clogs our stages and galleries. Dance that is merely adequate. Theatre that is competent but neither very good or really bad. Art that is thoughtlessly routine or formulaic. Performances that are indifferently staged. Music that mimics what’s already been done over and over again. It is this kind of art that sludges the ears, glazes over the eyes and dulls our audiences.<\/p>\n

Two things:<\/p>\n

                          1. Why are we so afraid to call out the mushy middle when
                              we see\/hear it?
                          2. Why must we set up expectations that performances are
                             going to be  “performance of a lifetime” when we know they
                             probably won’t be?<\/p>\n

Not every performance can be transcendent. But doesn’t there have to be room for the nobility of the routinely good as distinct from the merely indifferently routine?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NYT’s Charles Isherwood writes about what he calls the “odd-man-out” syndrome: This can roughly be described as the experience of attending an event at which much of the audience appears to be having a rollicking good time, while you sit in stony silence, either bored to stupefaction or itchy with irritation, miserably replaying the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/mush.jpg?fit=200%2C205&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ePZm-28","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":124,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/07\/the_tyranny_of_choice.html","url_meta":{"origin":132,"position":0},"title":"The Tyranny of Choice","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"July 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Choice is good right? Malcom Gladwell does a great talk on how Howard Moskowitz revolutionized marketing by understanding the dynamics of choice. His example here is spaghetti sauce. Traditional marketing strategy had been to get together focus groups and ask them what they liked in a good sauce. Then groups\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/07\/the_tyranny_of_choice.html#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2006\/12\/john_a_misunderstanding_and_tw.html","url_meta":{"origin":132,"position":1},"title":"John: A Misunderstanding and Two Questions","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"December 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Doug: I think we're talking about different things with the word \"rules.\" I meant that for each individual, critic or otherwise, there should be no rigid, exclusionary standards that determine our positions about most anything. With conflicts of interest and objectivity, I meant by no rules that to take an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":569,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2015\/02\/too-many-artists-or-not-enough-value.html","url_meta":{"origin":132,"position":2},"title":"Too Many Artists Or Not Enough Value?","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"February 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Scott Timberg's book Culture Crash makes a case that the transformation of our culture right now is killing artists' ability to make a living making art. 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Over the past couple months the New York Opera Fest showcased many of the New York companies.\u00a0For the most part, these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "arts & tech"","block_context":{"text":"arts & tech","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/arts-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/13-17-brainTraffic.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/13-17-brainTraffic.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/13-17-brainTraffic.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/13-17-brainTraffic.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/13-17-brainTraffic.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":830,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2016\/04\/what-is-greatness-this-weeks-five-artsjournal-highlights-04-03-16.html","url_meta":{"origin":132,"position":4},"title":"What Is Greatness? – Six Highlights From This Week’s ArtsJournal 04.03.16","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"April 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A number of stories this week tackled the meaning of greatness in art (even if they didn't explicitly frame it that way). 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